What Saint Antony Said on This Point

I will not set my own opinion against this, but that of the blessed Antony. With it he put to shame the laziness of a certain brother, overcome by the very lukewarmness you describe, and in doing so he also cut the knot of your question. As I said, a man came to the old man and said that the anchorite’s way of life was not at all to be admired, declaring that it took greater virtue for a man to practice what belongs to perfection while living among men than in the desert. The blessed Antony asked him where he himself lived. He said that he lived close to his relatives, and boasted that through their provision he was set free from all the care and worry of daily work, and gave himself without ceasing, and solely, to reading and prayer, with no distraction of spirit. Once more the blessed Antony said: “Tell me, my good friend, do you grieve with their griefs and misfortunes, and in the same way rejoice in their good fortune?” He admitted that he shared in both. The old man said to him: “You should know that in the world to come you will also be judged in the lot of those whose gain or loss, joy or sorrow, you have shared in this life.” [a]

Not content with this statement, the blessed Antony went on into a still wider discussion, saying: “This way of life and this most lukewarm condition do you harm in two ways. First, they strike you with the damage I spoke of, though you do not feel it now, when you somehow say, in the words of Proverbs, ‘They strike me, but I am not grieved; and they mocked me, but I did not know it’; or what is said in the Prophet, ‘And strangers have devoured his strength, but he himself did not know it.’ They do this because day after day they ceaselessly drag your mind down to earthly things and change it with every turn of fortune. “Second, they cheat you of the fruit of your own hands and the due reward of your own efforts. For they do not let you be supported by what your own hands supply, or earn your daily food for yourself with your own hands, according to the rule of the blessed apostle. When he was giving his last charge to the leaders of the church of Ephesus, he declared that, though he was taken up with the sacred duties of preaching the gospel, he provided not only for himself but also for those who were kept from working by necessary duties in his ministry. He said: ‘You yourselves know that these hands have served my needs and the needs of those who were with me.’ “And to show that he did this as a pattern useful to us, he says elsewhere: ‘We were not idle among you; neither did we eat anyone’s bread for nothing, but in labor and toil we worked night and day, so as not to be a burden to any of you. Not because we did not have the right, but so that we might give ourselves to you as a pattern to imitate.’”