The news about the healings in Capernaum attracted a large crowd – so large that people threatened to trample Jesus. Without newspapers, e-mails, telephones or television, the news about Jesus spreads to Tire and Sidon, eighty kilometers away in the north, to Idumea, a hundred and twenty kilometers away in the south. How could the news about Jesus spread so quickly? Suppose one person told another, another person, another person, and so on. It was almost as simple as that. And so powerful. When God acts, one is amazed. Imagine that you are there too: you have heard of the healing of the sick, of the revival of paralyzed limbs, of the disappearance of despair and despondency. You have already heard about so many healings that you finally dare to think that a miracle could happen to you too. Hunger and hope are born in you. Hearing about “small miracles” – the easing of hardships, unexpected kindnesses, a good night’s sleep after many sleepless nights – could have the same effect. A simple spoken word is powerful, and you can share this good news with others. Tell someone about what God has already done in your life, how he manifests himself in prayer, how he speaks to you in the sacred readings at Holy Mass, and what from all this still resonates in your heart. Maybe thanks to that, you will ignite a spark of hope or faith in someone. You don’t have to dramatize anything or say it to the whole crowd; it is enough if you simply and truthfully tell at least one person how God works in your life. Then leave room for the Holy Spirit, who will deepen faith in the person in question. You don’t even have to convince anyone. God can do this because his words and actions have power in themselves. The world hungers for God, whether consciously or unconsciously, and it is you who can show him how and where you have seen him act. However, if you think you have nothing to talk about, ask him to give you the opportunity today. Always watch carefully how God acts – by word, encouragement, healing.

Saint Anton the Hermit, also called the Abbot, came from a rich Christian family. He was born around 251/52 in North African Coma, Egypt. When he was 20 years old, both his parents died. Anton took care of the family property and the younger sister.

But that didn’t last long. When Anton once heard the words of the Gospel while visiting a church service: “If you want to be perfect, sell everything you have and give to the poor…” (Mt 19:21), he decided to accept this challenge from Jesus. He gave some property to religious women with the request that they take care of his sister, and gave away everything else. He began to lead a strict ascetic life in prayer, self-denial, and physical labor. At first, he lived near his hometown. Later, the desire for greater solitude led him to a rock cave in the Libyan desert and finally to the desolate mountains between the Nile River and the Red Sea.

Anton’s contemporaries, especially simple people, did not know such comforts as are taken for granted in our times. They lived simply and hard. How must the hermit Anton live, when his way of life caused general admiration and respect? In addition to voluntary hunger, thirst, and a stone bed, Anton endured the harsh desert climate with admirable contentment, and in such conditions, he worked, prayed, and pondered over the words he read in the Holy Scriptures. But that was not enough. For many years he was tormented by severe temptations. Biographers mention that the devil appeared to him in various animal and human forms. Sometimes he tempted him with enticing seductions, other times he tortured him so much that Anton was often completely beaten up.

It is certain that many extraordinary events mentioned in Anton’s old biographies have too much fantasy in them and belong rather to legends. But even these, in their way, help to better realize the historical fact that Saint Anthony the Hermit chose a very difficult path of following Christ, from which he was not led away by any seductions or threats or debilitating suffering.

Anton sought solitude, but he did not always manage to keep it. His admirable way of life did not remain a secret. He was sought out by the curious and people who asked for advice and help. Not only ordinary people came to him, but also monks, priests, and bishops, even Emperor Constantine the Great and his sons addressed him by letter. Since Anton also had a reputation as a miracle worker, many sick people came to him to achieve healing with his help. Several of the visitors decided to stay close to him and follow his way of life. That is why Anton is sometimes referred to as the founder of monastic life. However, he did not organize any monastic communities; only his younger contemporary Pachomius did that.

Despite his great desire for solitude, Anton did not despise human company. When there was a serious reason, he was willing to leave his heritage and go to help those who needed him. Thus, in the persecution under Emperor Maxi minus Daza (around 310), he set off on a long journey to Alexandria to strengthen the persecuted and imprisoned Christians there. Towards the end of his long life, he left solitude once again, at the request of the Alexandrian bishop St. Athanasius. He asked Anton to help him defend his true faith against the error of Arianism. It was already a very arduous journey for Anton, over a century old, but he went. When he returned, he felt that he was about to die. He warned his disciples of his impending death and ordered them to bury him in such a way that no one would know about the place of his grave.

Anton died at the advanced age of about 105 years. Biographies give the date of his death as January 17, 356. His grave remained unknown for a long time. It was only discovered during the reign of Emperor Justinian I in 561. At that time, his remains were transferred to Alexandria. Well, not for long. When the Muslims conquered Egypt, the remains of Saint Anthony were transported (in 635) to Constantinople. From there, around the year 1000, a large part of the remains reached France, where they have been kept in the church of St. since 1491. Julien in Arles.

St. Anthony Abbot had a surprisingly strong influence on his generation and subsequent periods. Under the influence of his example, thousands of Christians left their homes and chose a strict ascetic life. Even in the West, hermit communities were formed according to his model (Rome, Milan, …). St. Anthony himself did not establish any monastic institution and did not write any rules for his disciples. He was their living rule, which they strove to realize in their lives. What was later referred to as the rules of St. Anthony, was only a summary of advice and instructions, mostly taken from the biography of St. Anthony, written around 370 by St. Athanasius. After the saint’s remains were transferred to France, his veneration spread greatly in this country as well. A special knightly order of St. Anton and several fraternities for caring for the sick.

Anthony’s institutions, especially hospitals, had a good name and great privileges in France. Among them was the permission to raise pigs where other residents were not allowed to do so. From there, some derive the custom of depicting St. Anton Pustovník with a pig. Perhaps the veneration of this saint as the protector of domestic animals is related to this. Others explain the depiction of St. Anton with the pig so that it is an allusion to his temptations, during which the devil appeared to him in the form of animals. There is also a legend, according to which the defeated devil had to accompany the holy hermit in the form of a bravo as punishment.

Although these are mostly folk and legendary ideas, these also help – especially simple people – to understand the great spiritual power with which the great holy hermit Anthony surpassed everything that was animal and diabolical.

From the moment we receive the Holy Spirit into our hearts, we can no longer live “after the flesh.”
Do you know the Holy Spirit? St. Paul still teaches, “Those who live as he wills the flesh, seek only the things of the flesh; but those who live as the flesh wills the Spirit, after spiritual things. The efforts of men of the flesh lead to death and the efforts of spiritual men to life and peace. Therefore, the strivings of carnal men stand at enmity with God, for they are not subject to the law of God, yea nor can they be. Those who live to their flesh cannot please, God. But you do not live after the flesh, but according to the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit dwells in you. God” (Am 8:5-9).
The habit of pitting the spirit against the flesh is an ancient one, though it is not always clear how this is to be understood. The origin of this language seems to be found in the Indian sages. In Greek Platonic philosophy, it was understood as a radical distinction between the material body and the immaterial soul, which was therefore considered spiritual. This implies the moral necessity to renounce material values, to reduce to the smallest degree the needs of the body, and to follow the path of asceticism. Exhortations (exhortations), taken from Greek literature, were often repeated by the Church Fathers. But we must be careful to understand their proper meaning in a Christian setting. The word “spirit” in the new meaning is reserved for the Holy Spirit, and only the person we can call “spiritual” in whom the Holy Spirit works Holy Spirit. Then the term “body” also takes on a new meaning. It does not only mean the material element of our person and therefore created by God as good.

 One spirit with the Lord’s “flesh” according to St. Paul refers to all centrifugal, sinful inclinations that oppose the work of the Holy Spirit both in the inner man and in the world. This resistance to the Spirit, a consequence of sin, is not only in the body but above all in the soul. Hence, we are not surprised at the statement of Origin, which says that the souls of sinners are “carnal” and that the first “carnal” is the devil himself, even though he has nobody. It is important to realize the meaning of this terminology to understand the texts of Scripture and the Fathers properly, and to avoid the misunderstanding that Christianity seems to be the enemy of the human body. On the contrary, even the body must participate in the ideal of “progressive virtualization” of the human person.

Many ask, “Teacher, where do you live?” they don’t ask because they don’t see the reason. But in every life, there will be situations with painful phenomena.

When I visited houses and apartments in the parish during the Christmas season to bless them, I had the opportunity, if only for a few minutes, to enter the personal zone of many parishioners. Few things give you such a picture of a person as their living situation.

It is not only a question of whether he is surrounded by expensive or inexpensive things, but what he surrounds himself with, whether he likes order, and how the various items in his home are arranged. This is how you get clues as to what is important to the person or family.

At the same time, you don’t just invite anyone into your home. We have many acquaintances and friends, but we meet them at work, at school, on the street or in the shop. At home, we welcome family and close friends. Inviting someone home is, in a sense, a marking out. As long as we “only” meet, we can claim anything about ourselves. In the abode, however, things and surroundings speak about us. It’s where others get to know who we are, what we like, or where our favorite corner is.

If I’m meeting someone and our communication or relationship shouldn’t be formal, I’ll invite them home or accept the invitation. Walking into a stranger’s home is an invitation to get to know each other better.

In a home environment where I feel comfortable, I don’t have to act macho, I can open up more and show who I am. We know this pattern well. Every marriage starts with dating together, then we get to know where the other person lives and their family, and at the end we decide to live our lives together under the same roof.

This rule, so well known in everyday life, is also present in the Gospel. At the beginning of his public appearances, Jesus is only just being recognized by many. So two potential disciples approach him and ask him a question: “Teacher, where do you live?” His direct answer is also an invitation: “Come and see.” Behind Jesus’ words is not a desire to satisfy their curiosity, but to bring them to know him. One can only desire what one knows, at least in part.

We are invited into his “dwelling place” to get to know him better.
When a person desires to know God, he is one of the lucky ones and is on the right path. Those who desire to know the Lord more and open their hearts to Him will be given opportunities for their desire to be gradually fulfilled. Our culture does not help people to mature into such a question, which is why many never even ask it.

To state that we are surrounded by a superficial commercial culture, overwhelmed by platitudes, is carrying wood into the forest. Many of us are aware of this. It’s so easy to drown in the endless entertainment of short videos, never-ending information, and notifications from our messengers.

Many wonder, “Teacher, where do you live?” they don’t ask because they don’t see the point. Inevitably, in every life, a situation will arise in which our existence is confronted with painful phenomena. We are not immune to setbacks, wrongs, frustrations, sickness, or death.

In such a moment, every human being seeks a clue. If he has even a germ of Christian faith in him, he intuitively seeks spirituality with its answers or God directly, to regather the shards of his own life in conversation with him.

It is good that this is so. Jesus’ redemptive mission is for all. God can find an original way for each person during his or her lifetime so that he or she cannot help but notice it. Only if everyone takes courage and has the goodwill to respond.

In any case, we are indeed called to a deeper touch with the transcendent, to open ourselves to the God who transcends us. We are invited into his “dwelling place” to get to know him better. He calls us because we are God’s children for whom he sacrificed himself, and he does not want us to trudge around the world like lonely runners with our limitations, but to find peace of mind and a fixed point, which for human beings is only him. The sooner we understand that, the better.

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. The Lord Jesus enters the environment of sinners in the role of a physician. This healing role is to become our lot as well. The Christian is to go boldly into the world to transform it, to sanctify it by his prayer, his work, his example, and his life. This entry of the Christian into the world has been defined by Christians as consecration, or the sanctification of the world. As the priest takes ordinary bread in his hands at Mass and, with words of consecration, transforms it into the body of Christ, so we too are to transform, to direct to God, all the things of this world that our vocation in life encounters. In this way, we can heal many human ills if people feel the presence of Christ in our presence. But the problem of Christ as a physician has yet another aspect that should interest us. Perhaps we like to take on the role of physician of other people’s sins. But who do we consider ourselves to be? As righteous and perfectly healthy? We often encounter Christ at Mass, for example, where he offers himself for the sick. We encounter Jesus through his word and sacrament. Do we think of him as a physician in these encounters? Or rather as a reward for our righteousness? It might be better not to overdo it with our righteousness. It is certainly better to turn to Christ than to a doctor. Not a few sicknesses have hidden in our souls, various paralyzes, deformities. We may not be hurt by anything, but we are not hurting others. Perhaps one of us is a wound on the organism of the community. Either way, we always need some healing, because there are no people one hundred percent healthy. But the first condition of healing is to acknowledge that we are sick. As we see the Pharisees reject the Lord Jesus, but the humble tax collectors who consider themselves sinners are justified in his sight.