In The Desert

When St. Anthony of Egypt (in the fourth century ad) was twenty he sold all of his possesion, and donated his land to other villagers, and gave all the money to the poor. He then went out into the desert and became the first monk. He did all this because the Gospel that was read in Church that day was the story of Jesus telling the rich man "'If thou wouldest be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor; and come follow Me and thou shalt have treasure in heaven."

Its rather obvious to us that the Church does not expect us to sell everything that we have and give the money away. The rich man was told to do this because his money was standing in the way of his ability to follow God. St. Anthony was a rich man before he became a Monk (he owned almost three hundred acres of land). Clearly he saw himself as the rich man.

St. Anthony left the world behind and lived the rest of his life in the desert. The desert is where God sends people to be tested and cleansed. After the Israelites left Egypt God kept them in the desert instead of letting them enter the Holy Land. Additionally, Jesus entered the desert for forty days after he was baptized. St. Anthony had the same reasons for entering the desert.

Probably none of us will never enter the wilderness (on a permanent basis at least), but we should maybe think about how St. Anthony viewed all of his stuff. Anthony's possessions made it harder for him to focus his life on God, and things finally reached the point where he had to make a choice between the two. What do we have that maybe holds us back from God? What would we be better off without?