Daily Devotional - 08/28/2008

Christ is in our Midst!

 

Today is the feast of St. Moses the Black, or the Ethiopian, in the Orthodox Church (Moses’ title, “the Black,” is not of course meant to be a racist insult, but to distinguish him from other saints in the calendar whose name is Moses).  So I will exercise a point of personal privilege to write today not about Psalm 9, but about the life of this remarkable man.  Whatever your faith, or lack of same, I think the powerful example of this humble man and very great saint has much to offer all of us.  Let me tell you about him.

 

Moses was an African who lived in the 4^th century.  When we first meet him in his various hagiographies (ancient religious biographies that often stress the miraculous and sometimes scarcely credulous aspects of a saint’s life) we find an immensely powerful man who was a slave.  Now Moses proved to be so violent and unruly a slave that his owner apparently said “good riddance” when the young man simply ran away.  Fleeing to the edge of the Egyptian desert, Moses fell in with a gang of robbers, violent men.  Yet even among these hardened criminals Moses “excelled”:  brutally strong and toughened by his years of servitude, he quickly became the gang’s leader (one can easily imagine the “physicality” of his ascent to leadership!)  Under Moses the gang became the most notorious in the area---with its leader the most infamous of the band.  And by his own (later) admission, Moses led a debauched and dissolute life.  He gave himself over to every manner of evil, indulging his lusts and living by violence: once, though by accident, in the midst of some robbery, he even killed a child.  He was the “most wanted” criminal of his time; people trembled even at his name.

 

Once Moses, seeking new targets for robbery, decided to “case” a monastery.  Now the ancient monasteries of 

Egypt

, the oldest in the Christian world, had formed in the desert around the earliest of the Church Fathers, Anthony the Great and Pachomius, among others.  Moses thought the monastery he surveilled “easy pickings”---a bunch of unarmed men, many old, living alone in a desert wilderness far from help.  In fact, Moses decided rather boldly to enter the monastery to make a preliminary “haul” before he brought the rest of his gang to loot the settlement.  Boldly entering one of the monk’s huts, looking of course for treasure, Moses confronted a man who for some reason was not afraid of him, who bade him welcome and offered hospitality, and when Moses announced that he had come to rob the monk, simply offered to help collect whatever Moses wanted so that he could carry it away. 

 

Moses had never met such a man, and had never felt such a sense of welcome and hospitality and yes, love.  Moses decided to stay with the monks to find out what it was that made them so different from anyone else he had ever met.  On the spot, we are told, he joined the monastery. 

 

Here 

Hollywood

 might cut to closing scene, complete with a chorus humming in the background. 

 

But real life is seldom so easy.  Moses became a Christian.  He became a simple monk---and then the hard part began.  Moses was tormented for years, his biographers tell us, by the demon of lust.  Again and again he confessed this overpowering temptation; again and again his confessor Isidore urged him to persevere---even to the point of keeping the all-night vigil in prayer to keep himself from temptation; once when Moses felt close to the breaking point, his confessor showed him a vision of the world around him:  on one side were demons without number, all seeking to destroy Moses’ soul; but on the other side were even more angels, ready to do battle in Moses’ behalf, if only he would continue to resist the evil one.  With his immense strength, Moses began to fetch and carry water for the elder monks, sometimes carrying the water for great distances.  Six long years passed, and Moses at last gained victory over this temptation.

 

In the meantime, however, a wondrous change had come over the former man of violence.  Once when four members of his gang came to steal from the monastery, Moses ran them down, and we are told, tied them up and carried them over his shoulder back to the monastery, where, confronted by their former chief, they too, decided to join the monastery!

 

In old age Moses was ordained a deacon; his fame was such that people came from the city to meet this holy man.  Once when a city dweller came to the desert to meet Moses, the traveler came across a poorly dressed black man working at some menial task, and when the visitor asked where he might go to see the great Abba (Father) Moses, received the stunning reply that Moses wasn’t worth his time and trouble; that Moses was a great sinner that one should shun.  Later, when the traveler came to the monastery, he initially horrified the monks with his story:  who would say such terrible things about the man who had become the leader of the monks, revered for his holiness?  The monks’ outrage turned to laughter, however, when the traveler described the man who had said such terrible things about the saint---he was, of course Moses himself. 

 

Once, when one of the monks had committed some serious fault, the monks gathered to decide what to do with him.  Moses tried to avoid the meeting, but repeatedly summoned, he at last appeared carrying a heavy basket of sand on his back that had a hole in it; the sand was streaming out behind Moses as he walked.  When his monks asked him what in the world he was doing, Moses replied that even though his own sins streamed out behind him, he was nonetheless coming to judge a brother.  The monks immediately got the point:  the meeting dissolved; the transgressor was forgiven. 

 

In extreme old age, Moses was granted a vision that told him that a fierce and powerful band of raiders was coming to attack the monastery.  As leader of the monks, Moses urged his charges to leave and not expose themselves to certain death at the robbers’ hands.  Moses himself however, decided to stay and meet these men.  He had meditated for most of his life, he said, on the verse that said those who live by the sword will perish by it.  He also still grieved, at least half a century later, for all the violent acts he had committed, and for the child he had accidentally killed.

 

So Moses stayed behind, with seven other monks who refused to leave their abbot.  The raiders came, and seven, including Moses himself, were all put to the sword.  Only one monk, who had hidden himself, survived.  He told of seeing seven crowns appear in the sky for the seven martyrs.

 

In a world still afflicted by various forms of racism; in a world filled with violence and saturated with such lust that it seemingly requires greater quantities and even more outrageous forms to satisfy, St. Moses offers a stark and powerful alternative.  Our Lord says that the kingdom of heaven suffers “violence, and men of violence take it by force!” (St. Matt. 11: 12)  Moses reminds us of the effort (six years, remember, to conquer one sin alone) that we are often required to give if we really want to follow Christ. God will help us---every step of the way---but we nonetheless must try to keep the Way, and rise in repentance and resolution every time we fall.

 

As we talk this semester about “the Revolution,” let me suggest that one “revolutionary” we might emulate is St. Moses the Black.

 

Gary

Feast of 

St.

 Moses the Black, martyred with six of his brothers at Scete (4^th cen.).