August 2, 1998
Why Do Ascetics Avoid
Certain Things?
Today's story is from an anonymous
desert father who was questioned about his rule of fasting. His answer helps us to
understand ascetic practices and the rules for them that have developed over the
centuries.
BEGIN: There was a certain old man who lived a life of such
strict self-denial that he never drank wine. And when I arrived at his cell we sat down to
eat. Dates were brought and he ate, and he took water and drank. And I said unto him
laughingly, "So you are angry with absinthe, Father? Since you have eaten dates and
have drank water, why do you not drink wine?"
And he answered and said unto me, "If you take a handful
of dust and throw it on a man, will it hurt him?" And I said unto him,
"No." And he said unto me, "If you take a handful of water and throw it
over a man, will he feel pain?" And I said unto him, "No." And he said unto
me, "And again, if you take a handful of chopped straw and throw it over a man, will
it cause him pain?" And I said unto him, "No."
Then he said unto me, "But if you bring them all together
and mix them, and knead them well, and dry them, you may throw the mass on the skull of a
man and you will not break it." And I said unto him, "Yes, father, that is
true." And he said unto me, "The monks do not abstain from certain things
without good reason, and you must not listen to the men who are in the world who say, 'Why
do they not eat this and why do they not drink that?' Is there not sin in them? Such
people know not. Now we abstain from certain things not because the things themselves are
bad, but because the passions are mighty, and when they have waxed strong they kill
us." END
from S. A. Wallis Budge, "The Paradise of the Holy
Fathers," (Seattle: St. Nectarios Press, 1984), pp. 151-152
|
View Shopping Cart / Checkout