The Strong Abba Moses–A Story of Repentance and Hope
Irini Passi – peace be with you.
July 1st marks an important feast in the life of the Coptic Orthodox Church. It is the feast of one of the great fathers of the early church, in fact, one of the monastic fathers, he is commonly known as St. Moses the Black, but in fact in the Coptic language he is not called this. He is called “Pi gouri ethowabAva Mousi” – the strong Abba Moses. This is his correct title, and this is how he should be remembered and not by the color of his skin. Why do I say this? Well, because firstly we should not define people by the color of their skin but rather by who they are as a person and the qualities that they possess. That is why I prefer the Coptic name due to its deep meaning. Abba Moses was not only strong in stature but more importantly he was powerful in his repentance and in the disciplined ascetic life that he lived.
I hope to share with you some thoughts on how the life of Abba Moses and his sayings apply to us today. When we look at his amazing life one thing becomes clear. He gives hope to every sinner and person in distress. His life gives hope to every person enslaved by sin. He began his life according to the lusts of the flesh. Everything that his body desired he gave to it. In his early life he was a slave to people that worship the sun. He was mighty and loved to eat and drink. He murdered, robbed and committed fornication. No one was able to stand against him. I’ll give you an example of his evil beginning.
One day he harbored malice towards a certain shepherd who prevented him from committing a certain crime. He contemplated killing the shepherd. When he learnt that this shepherd was on the opposite side of the flooded Nile, he prepared to cross. When the shepherd learnt of this action by Moses he fled. Moses couldn’t catch the shepherd. Moses then chose four of the finest rams the shepherd had, tied them to his waist, swam back across the Nile, then ate their meat and took their skins.
This shows how powerful he was physically. He was of a large stature and was mighty. When his master expelled him due to his evil deeds, Moses formed an evil gang and was its leader. The person that doesn’t know God is a poor person. Such people are being led by the god of this world who is Satan. This is why St. Peter warns us saying ‘Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.’ (1Peter 5:8) Satan makes sin look desirable. He is a deceiver and liar. In Revelations 12:9 we read, ‘So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan who deceives the whole world;’ and yes, Satan was deceiving Abba Moses in the beginning of his life.
For those who live far away from God, it isn’t difficult for Satan to deceive them and make them fall into sin. Sin blinds the person from the truth. All the person thinks about is how they may commit their sins. This leads to spiritual death. As St. Paul reminds us in Romans 6:23, ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
St. Paul also says in the same chapter in verse 16 , ‘Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?’
I wonder then, what is the situation in our lives? Is it obedience to righteousness or slaves to sin? The person living in sin is truly a miserable person. If they are happy it is merely temporal, lasting a few hours or a very short while. Sin isn’t new in our day and age either. It is as old as humanity itself. The sins of fornication, murder, stealing, lying and much more, can all be found in the Old Testament, right from the beginning of creation of mankind. These sins exist till today. They may have a new look to them in contemporary times, but they are still the same sins.
Addictions today have made so many people slaves and servants of such sins. Many people have become slaves of the Internet, for example. They may spend many hours or even days online. Their time on the Internet is not always spent in a useful way. Many families have been destroyed by the Internet. For example, ‘cyber widows’ whose husbands may trade stocks or even have an extra marital affair. The Internet has also facilitated the spread of pornography and made it easier for people to access such material. Pornography is extremely dangerous. It is an evil addiction. It can destroy marriages and destroy future relationships for those preparing for marriage.
Another sin with a modern form is computerized gambling. Gambling is destroying countless lives. It is another deception from Satan. No one ever wins. People keep losing more and more. In the USA for example, online gaming in 2020 will be worth $9.3 billion, it is a staggering figure! How much good could have been done with this money? The gambling outlets are everywhere now. When you walk into these places (I hope you never do), they are dark, there’s no windows and no clocks on the walls. The attendants can’t even tell you the time. All you hear and see is the sound coming from these slot machines. It has a deep psychological effect on the person, that eventually enslaves him or her. I remember one person telling me a few years ago they went into the casino on a Friday morning and came out on Sunday thinking they had only spent a couple of hours in there. It is destructive and even more addictive than many other drugs.
Anyone living a life of gambling may commit other sins, such as stealing, smoking or drugs. This is what happened with King Solomon in the Old Testament. He followed after his fleshly desires and took wives that led him away from God. Satan takes an opportunity like this to pull a person further away from living a righteous and upright life. This is why we need to be vigilant and careful. Solomon eventually came to the conclusion that all is vanity. “‘Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher; ‘vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’ What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes. 1:2-3).
It is all vanity and grasping for the wind. His wise conclusion at the end of The Book of Ecclesiastes is to fear God. In Ecclesiastes. 12:13 he says, ‘…Fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man.’
This was the important lesson that the Strong Abba Moses also learnt in his life. The answers to life and salvation and repentance are there in front of us in the Scriptures but how many bother to listen and obey?
Yes, the words of life are there in the Scriptures for us, but who bothers to listen and obey? In the Scriptures we find answers to our problems. However, we need to humble ourselves and listen and obey. Our Lord says to us in John 5:39, ‘You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.’
This leads us to the amazing conversion that took place in the life of the Strong Abba Moses. His repentance was a true repentance without turning back to his evil way. His life is an example for every sinner, for everyone who is bound by sin and is a slave to it. He gives hope to all who have lost hope in life. He thought he was happy, but he was wrong. He shows how his search for the truth led him to true joy and repentance, true joy and eternal life. Trust in the Lord, and your misery will end. If Abba Moses was standing here right now this would be his message to us.
To all those who have lost hope and can only see darkness, Abba Moses stands as that pure and shining star. He is asking us to put our trust in God. He wasn’t superhuman. He was just like you and me. He lived on this same earth. He fell into sin but learnt from his mistakes and didn’t turn back again. This is the difference between us and the saints my brethren. When they heard the commandments of God they obeyed. This is an important lesson for us to imitate.
The saints make it easy for us to trust and believe in God. The reason being, they gave us a practical example of how to apply the Scriptures in their daily lives. They showed us that it is possible to fulfill the commandments of God and live by them. They became our ideal and our example to learn from. We have many examples in the Bible and from the history of our church. St. Paul speaks of many examples. In Hebrews 11:24-25 he talks about the affliction of Moses saying, ‘By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.’ Of these saints he later says in the same chapter in verses 37-38, ‘They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented- of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.’
St. Paul also enlightens us in Hebrews 12:1 in speaking of a support network we have with the saints. He tells us of a cloud of witnesses. ‘Thereforewe also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let is lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.’
In the life of repentance of Abba Moses there are many lessons we can learn.
We live in a rapidly changing, technological age. People want things instantly. People are losing patience and perseverance. Some actions which are committed hastily may be regretted later on. It was said of Abba Moses that once in a council in Scetis in Wadi El Natron, in the deserts of Egypt, the fathers wanted to test him. They treated him with contempt. They asked why a black man was among them? He kept silent. When the council was over, the saint was asked, ‘Abba did that not grieve you at all?’ He answered, ‘I was grieved, but I kept silence.’ He did this to cultivate an attitude of humility and long-suffering. The monks went to such length to learn silence in order achieve humility and long sufferance. However, such a test would be obviously totally unacceptable today. The moral of the story however, is a lesson in the benefit of silence and humility when it is appropriate to do so. Abba Aghathon was said to have gone for three years with a stone in his mouth in order to learn silence and perseverance. I want you all to look at these fathers as an example. I’m not asking you to put a rock in your mouth. Just learn from their ways. See how you will respond next time someone says a word against you to spite you. There should be no place for animosity or wrath in our lives, rather we need to learn Christian charity and love at all times, even towards our enemies, as this is a divine command.
From this story of Abba Moses, we also learn of the importance of silence and solitude. As one of the saints once said, ‘If the soul keeps far away from all thoughts and words, the Spirit of God will come to her and she who was barren will be fruitful.’
Abba Moses teaches us another important lesson about how to keep our thoughts pure. There is sin that is aggravated by media images. The images we are bombarded with daily may make our thoughts impure. Abba Moses says here is the solution: ‘The mind also through the trials of the present life is driven about by the torrent of temptation pouring in upon it from all sides and cannot be free from the flow of thoughts. But if as we said we constantly refer to meditation on the Holy Scriptures and raise our memory towards a recollection of spiritual things, spiritual thoughts are sure to rise from this and cause the mind to dwell on those things on which we have been meditating.’ So, this is the answer on how we can attain this pure state of thought.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, of blessed memory, once said, we cannot stop a bird from hovering over our head, but we can stop it from nesting on our heads and hatching eggs and making a mess. Likewise, we cannot stop thoughts from entering our minds, but we have the power to reject thoughts that are not in accordance with God’s will.
Abba Moses also teaches us of the importance of prayer and action together. He says, ‘if a person’s deeds are not in harmony with his prayer he labors in vain.’ Our words in prayer shouldn’t be separated from our work. They have to go hand in hand. Abba Silvanus warns his listeners of the folly of having a reputation with no basis in reality. He says, ‘most unfortunate is the one whose reputation exceeds his work.’
We also live in a world that encourages vain glory. We see this especially in the media. Satan many times tries to attack us with this temptation. When someone glorifies us, especially one in authority, I wonder how do we feel or react?
Once the magistrate heard about Abba Moses and went to Scetis, to the west of the Nile in Egypt to see him. When Abba Moses heard of this he fled. On the way to the blessed father’s cell the magistrate saw an old man heading to Egypt and asked him about the whereabouts of the saint. The old man (being Abba Moses) asked the magistrate what he wanted with an old fool? When the magistrate went to the church and told the clergy of this story, they were offended. They asked for a description of the man. It was Abba Moses. He was trying to avoid meeting the magistrate in order to avoid vain glory. The magistrate went away edified and learnt an important lesson for his life. This is how Abba Moses led a life of self denial receiving his glory from God rather thenmen.
From Abba Moses we learn how to totally rely on God in a world that is becoming more and more materialistic. A world that relies on one’s wealth, intellect and cleverness. It was said of Abba Moses in Scetis that when he arranged to go to a place called Petra, he grew tired in the course of the journey and asked himself, ‘How can I find the water that I need there?’ He then heard a voice saying, ‘Go and do not be anxious about anything.’ This was the life of the desert fathers. They had total reliance on God and knew He would provide all of their needs. We need to have the same faith and reliance on God. He will provide all we need at the right time. We should never be anxious for anything as the Scriptures teach us.
So, when the voice came, the saint went. He was then met by some visiting fathers. So, the saint used the small bottle of water he had to cook some lentils for them. Abba Moses was worried and moved in and out of his cell and prayed to God. A cloud then came and rained on Petra and filled all the cisterns with water. The fathers then queried the saint why he had kept moving in and out of his cell many times? He told them he was arguing with God saying, ‘You had brought me here and now I have no water for your servants. Yet he knew all too well that God would answer his prayers. This is the deep relationship that the saints have with God.
We worry about many things. This puts us in worry and distress and causes us to fall ill with many diseases. Abba Moses here shows us full reliance on God.
Many of us fall into the sin of judging others and forgetting our own faults. This is a problem of our ego getting the best of us. Our Lord warns us about this by saying, And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but do not consider the plank in your own eye? (Matt 7:3).
None of us is perfect and we are prone to fall into many errors in our lives, yet we look at this shining example today in Abba Moses and we have hope. We have hope in a God who loves us, and who forgives and forgets our sin and remembers it no more. If you ever visit Egypt, be sure to visit the Monastery of Baramos, or the Monastery of the two Romans, Maximus and Dometius, where you will find the relics of Abba Moses there and receive his blessing.
Stay tuned as we officially launch this podcast on July 12 at 2 pm Los Angeles time. Do not forget to subscribe and send in your questions and suggestions. You can also follow this podcast on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and other social media, just type in “Coffee with Bishop Suriel.” Or visit coffeewithbishopsuriel.org. Until next week, “Be inspired by the Holy Spirit.”