A story from the 4th Century Desert Fathers. I thought of this after a post on LinkedIn from Rick Bullotta who had grown tired of all the negativity.

A certain brother came to Abbot Silvanus at Mount Sinai, and seeing the hermits at work, he exclaimed, “Why do you work for the bread that perishes? We read that Mary chose the better part – namely, to sit at the feet of her Lord.” 

Then the abbot said to his disciple Zachary, “Give the brother a book, and put him in an empty cell, and let him read.” At the ninth hour the brother who was reading began to wonder why the abbot had not called him to eat. Sometime later he went directly to the abbot and said, “Did the brethren not eat today, father?” 

“Oh yes,” said the abbot. “They have just finished their meal.” “Well,” said the brother, “Why did you not call me?” “Because you are a spiritual man,” answered the abbot. “You do not need the food that perishes. The rest of us have to work. But you have chosen the better part; you have read all day and can surely get along without food.”

I don’t know why. Perhaps it was an attack of acesis—the noonday demon. I sinned and browsed Twitter yesterday afternoon. Almost every post was some sort of opinion based on, well, nothing. The only thing I learned were the prejudices of a large number of people.

It is so easy to criticize. It is so hard to do.

There are actually two better ways. One is to study, learn, contemplate. But that must be balanced by going and doing. These are our spiritual practices.

Nowhere at no time did someone teach that the goal of life is to sit on our ever-expanding, er, posteriors and voice unfounded opinions.

Perhaps in this time of trial, we can tell stories of people doing good. There are people all around the world working to serve the rest of us–health care workers, people who work in groceries (we gotta eat), people in manufacturing and production keeping the lights on and gas flowing and replenishing necessary supplies. There are tons of people being creative in their time away from busy-ness.

Share This

Follow this blog

Get a weekly email of all new posts.