Saint Anthony
Mk 2:23-28
One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.”
Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Renouncing Consumption
Today’s Gospel reading for the memorial of St. Anthony of the Desert demonstrates the radical nature of Jesus’ teaching: “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” (Mt 19:21). The teaching is so radical that I would argue that it cuts across most every polarization of our society. Regardless of what someone’s views are on abortion, immigration, gender and sexuality, or any number of controversial issues, all seem to be perfectly fine with the gathering of wealth, even though many people struggle in poverty on a daily basis. While we face the greatest threat to humanity in the environmental crises, the political views of politicians of every stripe rarely, if ever, include the call to consume less in wealthy countries.
Enter St. Anthony of the Desert. He was born into wealth but gave away literally all that he had and lived off of the meager donations of bread thrown to him in his hermitage, and yet he still had the spiritual strength to preach against the heresies of his day. One of the many insights he gifts to the church and the world today are that without dependence upon God, dramatically scaling-back our consumption of goods/energy is unimaginable: the way we understand meaningfulness in rich countries is heavily based on our consumption. Anthony upends this paradigm of life. In order to have the freedom to stop destroying the earth and the poor, we need the interior freedom to be reliant on God. This allows us to love 1) God and 2) our neighbors around the world, which are two ways of loving that can never be dissociated from one another. What is one way in which you can adopt a small but substantial and ongoing practice of the renunciation of consumption in your daily life?
—Timothy Perron, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic of the Midwest Province studying theology at Fordham University.
Prayer
Dear God, St Anthony the Abbot accepted your call to renounce the world and to love you above all things. He faithfully served you in the solitude of the desert by fasting, prayer, humility and good works. Through his intercession, may we learn to love you better; with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, all our strength and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Amen.
—Timothy Perron, SJ