There were two monks living in one place, and a great old man came to visit them with the intention of testing them. He took a stick and began to bang about the vegetables of one of them. Seeing it, the brother hid himself, and when only one shoot was left, he said to the old man, “Abba, if you will, leave it so that I can cook it that we may eat together.” Then the old man bowed in penitence to the brother, saying, “Because of your long-suffering, the Holy Spirit rests on you, brother.”38
Patience is also manifested in long-suffering, a commitment to being present. In this way a person can live with another in personally troubling times. It makes “spiritual solidarity”39 possible in the midst of conflict.
Abba Paul the Barber and his brother Timothy lived in Scetis. They often used to argue. Abba Paul said, “How long shall we go on like this?” Abba Timothy said to him, “I suggest you take my side of the argument and in my turn I will take your side when you oppose me.” They spent the rest of their days in this practice. 40
Patience is not an aspect of moral action. It is “a moral power which creates time.”41 In the absence of time that could be filled with impulsive activity we are able to see the challenge or decision before us in the light of our communion with God. In this way any subsequent actions have the opportunity to manifest the actual life of God. Patience makes both simplicity and humility possible by creating a holy waiting, regardless of its duration in chronological time. In this holy waiting we are guided to discern or act not only from personal desire or need, but also from the perspective of God’s time and life in the situation. This is not a simplistic “resting between the rounds” in a boxing match. It is not some thing that is applied to a situation. It is a characteristic and pattern of holy living. It is difficult to practice and it does not always “work.” But even when we fail, God’s unconditional presence (long-suffering), often in the life of another person, accepts and inspires us:
It was said of Abba Isidore, priest of Scetis, that when anyone had a brother who was sick, or careless or irritable, and wanted to send him away, he said, “Bring him here to me.” Then he took charge of him and by his long-suffering he cured him. 42
Abba Isidore became a living expression of the patience of God. He never lost sight of the sanctity of the quarrelsome and abusive brothers he took in. There are few details about what he did with them. It could not have been easy. It must have been hard work, the fruit of a lifetime of prayer. Love, itself, is not efficient. It is the motivation that gives meaning and integrity to our actions, regardless of how long they take.43
A brother asked (Isidore), “Why are the demons so frightened of you?” The old man said to him, “Because I have practiced asceticism since the day I became a monk, and not allowed anger to reach my lips.”44
Isidore made Christ tangible. This is the most profound achievement in any person’s life. By patient prayer and love of neighbor, a person is shaped into a manifestation of Christ and shares that presence with others as a legacy so that, in turn, they too may have life. Isidore’s awareness of the value of the troublesome brothers’ lives was shaped by his experience of God.
The same Abba Isidore said, “It is the wisdom of the saints to recognize the will of God. Indeed, in obeying the truth, man surpasses everything else, for he is the image and likeness of God. Of all evil suggestions, the most terrible is that of following one’s own heart, that is to say, one’s own thought, and not the law of God. A man who does this will be afflicted later on, because he has not recognized the mystery, and has not found the way of the saints in order to work in it. For now is the time to labor for the Lord, for salvation is found in the day of affliction: for it is written, ‘By your endurance you will gain your lives “‘ (Luke 21:19).45
Patience is not passivity. We can be sure that Isidore did not just sit around, in prayer, and wait for the irritable brothers to “shape up.” We do not know the details, but the way he held them accountable for their actions must have been informed and empowered by his patience. He must have lured them beyond what currently brought them satisfaction. Patience is filled with energy that leads to moral behavior. It conserves and guards the fundamental spiritual values of the world and forms each person into someone whose life is congruent with those same values. Patience helps incarnate the mind of Christ, and this requires the self-awareness learned in the monk’s or lay person’s cell in prayer. In this way, our practice of patience creates a culture in which every human being becomes valued as a sacred being. This transforms the motivation for moral behavior from external obligations to an internal desire to manifest God’s love in all aspects of one’s life.
The following excerpt from the additions of Rufinus to the Historia Monachorum gives a moving picture of a culture where, through patient endurance, the sacredness of life was manifested in the lives of the monks. We saw a certain venerable father there, called Ammonius, a man in whom God had gathered together all his graces. When you saw how much charity he had, you would think you had never seen anything like it. If you considered his humility, you would think him more powerful in this than in anything else. But if you thought about his patience, or his gentleness or his kindness, you would think he excelled in each of these virtues and you would not know which came first. The gift of wisdom and learning was given him by God so abundantly that you would suppose none of the fathers to have gone so far into all the ways of knowledge. All that saw him said that no-one else had ever been so deeply drawn into the inner courts of the wisdom of God.
Also there were his two brothers, Eusebius and Euthymius, while Dioscorus, who was senior to him, had already been raised to the episcopate. These were brothers not only according to the flesh but were kin in their way of life, their practices and in all the virtues of their souls. As for all those brethren who lived in that place, they nourished them as a nurse with her children, strengthening them with teaching, and by their words leading them to shine at the height of perfection.46
~David G.R. Keller, Oasis of Wisdom: The Worlds of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
38 Ward, Wisdom, 57-58.
39 This is a valuable insight and phrase used by Stelios Ramfos in Pelican in a discussion of the active nature of patience. See 44–45.
40 Ward, Sayings, Paul the Barber 1,204.
41 Stelios Ramfos, Pelican, 44.
42 Ward, Sayings, Isidore 1, 96.
43 See Gerald May, The Awakened Heart (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991) 3-5.
44 Ward, Sayings, Isidore 2, 96-97.
45 Ibid., Isidore 9, 97-98.
46 Ward, Lives, 149.
