St Macarius the Spiritbearer
Abba Poemen acclaimed of him: Every time I met Abba Macarius I did not say a single word without his already having knowledge of it because he was a Spiritbearer and possessed a prophetic spirit, like Elijah and all the other prophets, for he was clothed with humility like a cloak through the power of the Paraclete who dwelt in him. He alone possessed foresight and was filled with the grace of God; the glory of the Lord shone on his face; the consolation of the Consoler, the Holy Spirit, which was with him, came down upon everyone sitting around him.
Abba Sisoës said about Abba Macarius that a brother came to visit him one time and saw the power of God going with him. The old man said to himself, “Oh! How this man’s weeping over sins compares with the virtues!” Abba Macarius said to the brother, “Believe me, if you knew who is with you, you would not fear anything the world has to offer.”
One time a brother asked Abba Macarius, “Tell me, my father, what is it to throw oneself down before God?” Abba Macarius said to him, “It is written that our Lord did not speak to people except in parables [Mt 13:14]. So, if an irrational wild beast leaps upon a domesticated animal and stands over it with great ferocity so that the animal beneath it weakly cowers before it, all its strength and hope depend on its master and it cries out in a loud voice, signaling to its master. If its master hears it, then he quickly takes pity on it and runs and helps it and saves it from being destroyed by the wild beast. If the master of this irrational animal takes pity on it and hurries until he saves it from the wild beast, then how much more is it true for us, the rational sheep of Christ’s flock? If we put our faith in him, he will not allow the Enemy to do violence to us but will send his angel to us to save us from the Devil. Therefore, my children, throwing oneself down before God is when a person person does not trust in his own strength alone but places his faith in the help of God, for it is he who saves us.
This same brother again [asked] him, “My father, guide me concerning [what is] sweet and what is salty” [Jas 3:11]. Abba Macarius [said] to him, “They say that if the mother of a small child places the child on the ground, she puts some kind of sweet in his hand for him to lick so he won’t vex his mother. The vexing can be likened to sin and pleasure while the sweet, on the other hand, represents our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed name, the true pearl, for it is written in the Holy Gospel that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who is looking for precious jewels. Therefore, when he found a valuable jewel, he went and sold what he possessed and bought it. So he gave up what he owned, his heart’s desires, and wanted only the precious stone, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ, king of kings and lord of lords” [Mt 13:45, 1 Tim 6:15, Rev 17:14].
Abba Poemen said, “I was sitting one time with some brothers beside Abba Macarius. I said to him, ‘My father, what work must a person do in order to acquire life for himself?’ “The old man said to me, ‘I know that when I was a child in my father’s house I used to observe that the old women and the young people were chewing something in their mouths so that it would sweeten the saliva in their throats and the bad breath of their mouths, sweetening and refreshing their liver and all their innards. If something fleshly can so sweeten those who chew it and ruminate it, then how much more the food of life, the spring of salvation, the fount of living water, the sweet of all sweets, our Lord Jesus Christ! If the demons hear his glorious name blessed by our mouths, they vanish like smoke. This blessed name, if we persevere in it and ruminate on it, opens up the spirit, the charioteer of the soul and the body, and drives52 all thoughts of evil out of the immortal soul and reveals to it heavenly things, especially him who is in heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ, king of kings and lord of lords [1 Tim 6:15, Rev 17:14], who gives heavenly rewards to those who seek him with their whole heart.’” When Abba Poemen heard these things from him about whom Christ bears witness (“The righteous Macarius stands today before my judgment seat”), they threw themselves at his feet with tears, and after he prayed over them, he dismissed them and they gave glory to our Lord Jesus Christ.
A brother asked Abba Macarius, “My father, I have committed a transgression.” Abba Macarius said to him, “It is written, my child, ‘I do not desire the death of a sinner so much as his repentance and his life’ [Ezek 33:11, 1 Tim 2:4, 2 Pet 3:9]. Repent, therefore, my child; you will see him who is gentle, our Lord Jesus Christ, his face full of joy for you, like a nursing mother whose face is full of joy for her child. When he raises his hands and his face up to her, even if he is full of all kinds of uncleanness, she does not turn away from that bad smell and excrement but takes pity on him and lifts him up and presses him to her breast, her face full of joy, and everything about him is sweet to her. If, then, this created person has pity for her child, how much greater is the love of the creator, our Lord Jesus Christ, for us!
The brother again asked, “What work is best for the ascetic and the abstinent?” He responded and said to him, “Blessed is the person who will be found tending the blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ without ceasing and with contrition of heart. Of all the ascetic practices, none is better than this blessed nourishment if you ruminate on it at all times like the sheep: the sheep regurgitates and savors the sweet taste of its cud until it enters the interior of its heart and brings sweetness and good fatness to its intestines and to all its innards. Do you not see how beautiful its cheeks are, filled with the sweet cud that it ruminates in its mouth? May our Lord Jesus Christ also bless us with his sweet and fat name!”
Abba Macarius the Great said, “Concentrate on this name of our Lord Jesus Christ with a contrite heart, the words welling up from your lips and drawing you to them. And do not depict him with an image in your mind but concentrate on calling to him: ‘Our Lord Jesus, have mercy on me.’ Do these things in peace and you will see the peace of his divinity within you; he will run off the darkness of the passions that dwell within you and he will purify the inner person [2 Cor 4:16, Eph 3:16] just as Adam was pure in paradise. This is the blessed name that John the Evangelist pronounced: ‘Light of the world and unending sweetness, the food of life and the true food’” [Jn 6:48, 6:55, 8:12].
Our righteous father, Abba Macarius the Great, said, “Truly, all the works that each of us does are written, whether it be a service or, even more, prayer that one performs at any time; or, even more, kneeling; or, even more, a tear; or, even more, fasting; or a good word that someone says to his brother; or a very insignificant work that someone does for God, including manual labor: all these things are written for us each day. By no means, my children, will our Savior rob you of anything. All the labors that each person does will be shown to them [sic] at the time they leave the body. Fight, my children. Do not gaze at the multitude eating and drinking and sleeping, who do not repent. Do not say, ‘Perhaps those who suffer and those who do not suffer are really equal.’ By no means, my children! Strengthen yourselves in the faith of your land, for every harsh labor that we undertake (surely suffering due to one’s ascetic eating habits is one example), even an insignificant ascetic practice that one does, will be revealed to us in the age to come. Run, then, my children, to labor and to love your labor; let it be sweet to you with very great humility of heart.
They said of Abba Macarius the Great that he became, as it is written, a god upon earth, because, just as God protects the world, so Abba Macarius would cover the faults which he saw, as though he did not see them; and those which he heard, as though he did not hear them.
Abba Macarius was once coming from the marsh to his own cell carrying reeds when the devil met him on the way, carrying a scythe; he wanted to strike him but could not. He said to him: “There is a great force about you Macarius, for I cannot get at you. See, whatever you do, I do it too. You fast, I do not eat at all; you keep watch, I do not ever sleep. There is only one thing in which you have the better of me.” “What is that?” Abba Macarius said to him, and he said: “Your humility; because of that I cannot get at you.”
Fr Matthew the Poor commenting on one of the stories of St Macarius the Great says: Saint Macarius refused to put on the halo because of his works, asceticism or his function as superior. Instead, he insisted on behaving with the same qualities and spirituality with which he had started the monastic life; first with himself and second with his spiritual children. Plainly said, Saint Macarius liked, deep down, to continue to consider himself a layman, a camel driver who steals the natron, and could not stand that his spiritual children deceived him or praised him as better than any layman. It is as if he wanted to tell us, “all that is negative or weak in my life is mine, of Macarius. While all that is noble and exalted is from the Christ who lives in me. How can I take what belongs to Christ and attribute it to me, or how can I take for myself the honor that belongs to Christ?” This principle with which Macarius lived among his children helps us to better understand his personality―he was authentic without falsehood, and he did not like flattery. He lived his own reality in its most fragile condition without denying the past or being proud of the successes of the present; he did not impose respect on his children for his function as superior. Indeed, he did not accept that his talents were made available to his relationship with his spiritual children and his disciples but, in silence and extreme delicacy, he imposed on everyone that the dialogue and the relationship with them to be based on his weakness and not on his strength… Macarius imposed on his questioner to avoid any ceremoniousness towards him in order to erase from his soul any feeling of fear or awe so that Macarius could live, appear and speak with that simple and authentic way that he loved so much, like a simple camel driver traveling to his heavenly homeland.