November 22, 1998
Boredom
-- The Devil's Weapon
Today’s thought is from Abba Cassian, better known in the
West as John Cassian who wrote "Institutes" and "Conferences," two of
the best-known classics of monastic writing. Abba Cassian (360-435) joined a monastery in
Bethlehem as a young man and later left it with a fellow monk, Germanus, to travel abroad
to Egypt and Syria to study monasticism. The books which resulted from these travels have
made Abba Cassian one of the best known writers on monastic spirituality in both the
eastern and western traditions of Christianity. Today’s thought deals with something
we all experience – boredom.
BEGIN: (Abba John) related with regard to another old man living in the desert, that he
had asked God to grant him never to become sleepy during a spiritual conference, but, if
someone uttered slanderous or useless words, to be able to go to sleep at once, so that
his ears should never be touched by that poison. This old man also said that the devil,
enemy of all spiritual instruction, works hard to provoke useless words.
He used the following example, "Once when I was talking to some brothers on a helpful
toppic, they were overcome by sleep so deep, that they could not even move their eyelids
any longer. Then, wishing to show them the power of the devil, I introduced a trivial
subject of conversation. Immediately, they woke up, full of joy. Then I said to them with
many sighs, ‘Until now, we were discussing heavenly things and your eyes were heavy
with sleep, but when I embarked on a useless discourse, you all woke up with alacrity.
Therefore, brothers, I implore you to recognize the power of the evil demon; pay attention
to yourselves, and guard yourselves from the desire to sleep when you are doing or
listening to something spiritual.’" END
This same Abba John also gave Abba Cassian a summation of the spiritual life:
BEGIN: The brothers surrounded the same Abba John who was at the point of death and ready
to depart eagerly and joyously to God. They asked him to leave them a concise and salutary
saying as their inheritance, which would enable them to become perfect in Christ. Groaning
he said to them, "I have never done my own will, not taught anything which I had not
previously carried out." END
from Benedicta Ward, "The Sayings of the Desert Fathers," (Kalamazoo,
Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1975), p. 114
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