One of the great things I appreciate about the desert spirituality of the late antiquity period of Christianity is the deep humility of the Ammas/Abbas. They were sought out for their wisdom but several stories of these wise teachers show that it is they who are the ones in need of learning. Here is among one of my favorites taken from Tim Vivian’s book “Becoming Fire”:
A person of devout life who was not a monk came to see Abba Poemen. Now it happened that there were other brothers with the old man, asking to hear a word from him. The old man said to the faithful secular, ‘Say a word to the brothers’.
When he insisted, the secular said, ‘Please excuse me, abba; I myself have come to learn.”
But he was urged on by the old man and so he said, ‘I am a secular. I sell vegetables and do business; I take bundles to pieces and make smaller ones; I buy cheap and sell dear. What is more, I do not know how to speak of the Scriptures, so I will tell you a parable: A man said to his friends, “I want to go to see the emperor; come with me”. One friend said to him, “I will go with you half the way”. Then the man said to another friend, Come and go with me to the emperor”. and the friend said to him, “I will take you as far as the emperor’s palace”. The man said to a third friend, “Come with me to the emperor”. The friend said, “I will come and take you to the palace and I will stay and speak and help you have access to the emperor”’.
The brothers asked what the point of the parable was.
The secular answered them, ‘The first friend is asceticism, which leads the way; the second is chastity, which take us to heaven; the third is alms-giving, which with confidence presents us to God our King’.
The bothers withdrew, edified.
Here is Abba Poemen divesting his privilege so another, presumably one who is seen as less than the Abba, can teach. The divestment of power by Poemen is not just humble but a humility that is inspired by the Christ.
The fancy Greek word is kenosis. It means to self-empty. It is what God does in Christ by becoming human. It is what Christ does on the cross by dying. It is was the Holy Spirit does by dispersing to all people. It is what the Church is supposed to be doing when it comes to our position of power by being quite so that others can be heard.
Divestment is not something that people in power are too keen on. I know that I struggle with it. However, divestment of power is the way of leadership that is most needed today. Divestment of power, the self-emptying and kenosis of Christ is what we are called to do but we in power resist it. We are threatened by it. We presume that our ways are not only the best ways but THE WAY. We think that it is we who should be heard because we have the education and people come to us, but until we in power learn that kenosis is our call we only contribute to the cycle of violence and blame.
Poemen divested his power in this position and protected the secular one (the stranger and foreigner). Poemen made the audacious claim that the scandalous one has something to teach, has something of value. Poemen modeled to the brothers what Arsenius said that he can know “Latin and Greek, but I (we) do not know even the alphabet of the peasant (the other).”
Many Church leaders tend to think that being in but not of this world means that the culture has nothing to teach or offer the Church. That the Church should in fact learn nothing but be the teachers of culture. It is assumed that if the culture teaches or values something that is contrary to the Church then it is the culture that is wrong.
And yet, Poemen and Arsenius thought it was good to learn from the culture and peasant. Almost as though the culture and peasant have something that is closer to the heart of Christ than the Church does.
What can we learn from the secularist?
