Prudence
“A hunter in the desert saw Abba Anthony enjoying himself with the brethren and he was shocked. Wanting to show him that it was necessary sometimes to meet the needs of the brethren, the old man said to him, ‘Put an arrow in your bow and shoot it.' So he did. The old man then said, ‘Shoot another,' and he did so. Then the old man said, ‘Shoot yet again,' and the hunter replied ‘If I bend my bow so much I will break it.' Then the old man said to him, ‘It is the same with the work of God. If we stretch the brethren beyond measure they will soon break. Sometimes it is necessary to come down to meet their needs.' When he heard these words the hunter was pierced by compunction and, greatly edified by the old man, he went away. As for the brethren, they went home strengthened.” -The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Abba Anthony the Great, paragraph 13)
The first time I read this, I was a new convert. I read it, but did not necessarily heed the advice. To be honest, I still sometimes forget.
There is a lot of wisdom in this short encounter.
First, there is the part of “If we stretch the brethren beyond measure they will soon break.” There are countless types of situations we can apply this to. I will just expound on one. We can apply this to convert zeal. The zeal that converts have is very good and holy as long as it doesn’t go to an extreme, especially for those new to the faith as a whole. It is a trend that converts, in their initial zeal, overload themselves with devotions and penances. They do this with an earnest desire and good intention, but they take on too much too quickly (and usually without the guidance of a spiritual father). Then, after a while of this, they get burned out. The affects of this burnout vary, but they can be avoided. There are examples of great Saints making a complete 180 like this and do not get burned out and grow very far in virtue this way, but I would say this is the exception and not the norm. It is almost always better to take on new devotions and penances slowly overtime to make them into a something you will keep long term. But of course, always listen to your spiritual father if you have one.
Second, there is the part where Abba Anthony says “Sometimes it is necessary to come down to meet their needs.” This is also something I struggled with as a new convert. I wanted to talk about the Faith all the time no matter who I was conversing with, and to be honest some people really did not care or want to talk about it. This caused me great irritation and caused me to stop talking to some people as much as I previously had. I feel like what Abba Anthony is saying is that there is a time to talk of spiritual matters, but there is also time to “come down to meet the needs of others” and talk about other things. This really takes discernment and prudence of knowing when to do this and with whom, but it is something to think about.
In both of these cases, prudence is needed to make a wise decision. Let us all pray for an increase in prudence and discernment.
Saint Abba Anthony the Great, pray for us!