A few leagues from Nag Hammadi stood the monastic community of Tabenna that had been founded by Abba Pachomius, a great ascetic and teacher. And it was to this small hermit community that a young man arrived one day on the back of a mule. Abba John was the first to see his silhouette on the horizon, gilded by a blazing sun. Shortly before reaching the first cell of the Monastery, the unknown visitor fell off his mule. Abba John ran to help him, bringing him fresh water.
With the help of other Brothers, Abba[1] John managed to take the young man to one of the most comfortable cells in the monastery which the monks reserved for guests, while Abba Rashida took care of the mule, which also showed signs of fatigue. The young man, who had beautiful features that seemed almost angelic to Abba John, was cared for with love and care. He was given water, vegetables and even hard boiled eggs with cumin. Abba Andronikos, who had been a doctor in Alexandria in the service of a Roman merchant before finding Christ and leaving the city for the desert, took charge of restoring the stranger's health and tending to his burns with medicinal ointments. The young stranger cried from time to time but did not utter a word. When he saw the brothers bringing food and water to his cell, he would kiss them and the monks would smile.
“Do you think we should inform the authorities?” -Abba Adronikos asked Abba John -“They might be looking for him…he seems like a very gentle and loving young man, but he could be a fugitive from justice, brother…”
Abba John looked at his monastic brother with a smile and said “And he could also be a fugitive from injustice.”
Two days passed and little by little, the young man seemed to be regaining his health. Abba John and Abba Andronikos thought that given the deterioration of his physical condition the young man must have been travelling for a long time and from a long way away, perhaps from Cairo itself but the young man did not say anything. He was crying and Abba Andronikos was sure that he was suffering from acedia. Suddenly and after Vespers, just before the monks retired to their cells to practice hesychasm[2] some horsemen approached the monastery. Banditry was all too frequent and the monks always showed a minimal degree of caution when they had visitors.
"Who goes there?" enquired Abba Moses, who stood closest to the entrance.
"My name is Maximus and I am a merchant from Amarna[3], these four men who accompany me are my servants so do not fear” said the first rider, a very well-dressed Roman accompanied by four burly men. They seemed more like bodyguards than servants. The monks offered wine and bread with honey to their visitors and Abba John met with the Roman who called himself Maximus.
“I am also a Christian Abba,” began Maximus, “and I have the great privilege of being friends with the great Anastasius, bishop of Alexandria.” When Maximus said this, he looked at Abba John with condescension.
"And what brings you to our humble community, dear brother Maximus?" asked Abba John with genuine warmth.
“A man. A sinner who should be turned into a pillar of salt.” said Maximus with a stern expression somewhere between hatred and shame.
“Who is this man you speak of, dear brother?” replied Abba John.
Maximus emptied his glass of wine and looked at the ground and said bitterly, “My brother Agapius…we know that you are taking care of him and for that my parents and I will be eternally grateful to you and your brethren, but know that you are harboring a sinner, a sodomite…a false eunuch.”
And what do you intend to do with him?
Silence
“Only fire can purify that sin, Father,” Maximus finally answered.
Abba John filled Maximus’ cup with wine and looked at him with compassion.
“Maximus. Jesus Christ tells us to love and not to judge. You are Roman and your not-so-distant ancestors viewed these issues in a very different way. Now that you are a Christian, should you shy away from love and compassion, who are we to condemn anyone to the fire?”
“Father… I appreciate what you have done and I respect your words, but I have come to do a job and to clear my family’s honor. Everyone in Amarna knows that I am the sodomite’s brother… And for my parents it is worse.”
Maximus threw his clay cup against the wall of the monastery reception area, breaking it into a thousand pieces, and then unsheathed his sword. “I will be the hand of justice,” shouted Maximus, and with tears in his eyes and beside himself, he pushed Abba John aside, but the monk was a strong man whose ascetic life had not taken away one iota of his natural strength, and he pushed him back. Maximus, humiliated before his men and with sword in hand, was insane enough to commit one of the worst crimes possible: killing a man of God.
At that moment, Agapius appeared and spoke for the first time in several days. “Maximus, please.” Maximus looked at his brother with hatred and approached him quickly with his sword in his hand, but when he was a few inches away from Agapius, he looked into his brother’s eyes and saw all the love they had shared playing in the gardens of Alexandria as children, eating oranges in Thebes and playing pranks on their nanny. They used to go hunting with their father and he remembered how their mother used to kiss them every morning.
Maximus fell to his knees and grabbed his brother by the shoulders “catamite…sinner…brother” but his words ended in stammering. The two brothers hugged each other and even the servants who looked like gladiators were visibly moved by the scene unfolding before their eyes.
Maximus spent the night in the monastery drinking wine with Agapius and the laughter of both broke the silence of the desert and when some monk of the community complained to Abba John that the noise prevented him from practicing the hesychast prayer of Jesus, Abba John embraced the monk and said to him “Sara already said that God had made her laugh and that anyone who hears her laughter will laugh with me”
In the morning Maximus and his men said goodbye to Agapius and the monks. Maximus embraced Abba John and then disappeared into the desert with his men. Maximus gave Agapius money and left two of his men with him so that they could all go to Rome and take care of some family business.
Before leaving, Agapius thanked Abba John “Some men love their wives. I have loved a man. But it is love. The same love, I know it in my heart. Why did you help me so much, Father? You could have put your life and that of your brothers in danger."
"Agapius, we are in the service of love. Whoever is not in the service of love must be healed for he is unwell. The fugitive was not you, Agapius, it was your brother Maximus who had fled from love but, thanks be to God, has been healed. Christ himself tells us:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on his throne of glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him; and he will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right hand: Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; in prison, and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? Or when did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the King will answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me. Then he will say also to those on the left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take me in; I was naked and you did not clothe me; I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they also will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew 25:31-46”
These and many other stories are told by the legends, but in Tabenna today there are only ruins. Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ who taught us to love and not to judge.
Copyright ©️
Darren Lorente – Bull
London 2020.
[1] Abba means father and is the ecclesiastical title by which Christian monks and clerics refer to each other.
[2] Hesychasm from the Greek word hesychia is a contemplative spiritual practice typical of the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox churches including the Coptic Church whose main aim is the search for stillness and control of thoughts and sobriety.
[3] A population located in the eastern region of the Nile in Egypt.
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