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| St. Anthony being attacked by demons |
St. Anthony of the Desert, also known as St. Anthony of Egypt, is considered the Father of Monks. According to St. Athanasius, who wrote his biography, St. Anthony, while twenty years old, heard the Gospel of the rich young man, that, in order to be happy, he had to sell his riches and follow Christ. So he got rid of most of his possessions and land, gave his sister into the care of some local Christian virgins (no one knows how she took his decision), and eventually went into the wilderness of Egypt, and lived to the ripe old age of 105 (a blessing in addition to having the name Anthony).
Why does St. Anthony go into the desert? Why does Jesus go into the desert after His baptism, as heard in the Gospel today? What’s the big deal with deserts?
To begin with, it was the opposite of where man was supposed to be. We heard in Genesis how God put Adam and Eve into a garden in Eden. The garden had everything they needed for food and sustenance, and apparently it was warm enough where walking around without clothes wasn’t a problem, so certainly, the garden was not in Michigan! But the point is that gardens are places of life, whereas deserts are places of death.
For the Israelites, the desert was also the place of great testing after the Exodus from Egypt. Recall that the desert was where the Israelites wandered for 40 years, after they doubted that God could take care of the giants who were occupying the land of Canaan, where God had promised to settle the Chosen People.
Last, but not least, just as the garden was seen as the property of God, the source of life, so the desert was seen as the property of the devil, the source of death. At the Day of Atonement, the priests would send the goat, who had previously received the sins of the nation on it, into the desert to be handed over to the demon Azazel.
So Jesus, and St. Anthony in imitation of Him, goes into the desert, and there He is tempted. Both Jesus and St. Anthony went there to battle Satan. St. Matthew writes in his account of the Gospel that Jesus battled Satan verbally (Jesus, of course, won). St. Athanasius records that St. Anthony was tempted in the desert with all sorts of temptations, and St. Anthony did not give in to those temptations; he won his contest.
For us, then, Lent is going into the desert. The desert isn’t a fun place, but it’s a necessary place for us to grow in our relationship with God. It’s a place of battle, and that means we have to fight. But it’s the only way to get back to the garden. In Lent we fight against our fallen earthly desires in order that our desire for heaven can be strengthened. In Lent we fight against our temptations to sin, to be disobedient to God and obedient to Satan. In Lent, we fight against hiding from God because of our shame, and we run to God to ask Him to heal the wounds the sin has created and clothe us with His holiness.
Lent is a privileged time to grow in holiness. Jesus didn’t grow in holiness when He went into the desert, because He is holiness Himself. But He gave us an example so that we could grow in holiness. St. Anthony grew in holiness when he went into the desert, and gave us an example of how fasting, extra prayer, and concentrating on our relationship with God transform us by the power of God’s grace into the man or woman that God wants us to be.
Entering the desert for us can be more time for silence. Not only for the young, but especially for the young, silence can feel like death! To a society so used to having access to the internet all the time on the phone, or music all the time, or some sort of stimulus for our ears and eyes, silence can seem as barren as a sea of sand. But it’s also a great way to become more accustomed to hearing the Word of God, which often is only audible in silence.
Entering the desert for us can be making more time for prayer: speaking with and listening to God. It seems like every year we get more and more things to do, and prayer often gets shoved out of the way, even before we ditch exercise! And yet, without prayer, we can’t thrive as God wants us to thrive. Again, it may feel deadly to set aside even another 5 minutes each day to tell God what’s on our hearts, and to listen to hear what God’s heart wants to say to us. But it’s also a great way to know if we are following God’s will or our own will.
As we enter this Lenten season, this Lenten desert, let’s follow the example of Jesus, and the example of St. Anthony. Let’s go into the desert to fight our temptations and to do battle with Satan, a battle that we can assuredly win if we’re connected to Christ, as St. Anthony was. Don’t be afraid of the dryness of the desert; don’t be afraid that it’s too difficult. Enter the desert with Christ and St. Anthony, as a way to enter the Garden when we come to Easter.
