The humble keep their spiritual wealth in God's treasury

– Elder, I see that I do not like to struggle in secret. Is that why I feel an emptiness inside me?

– This requires great humility. Listen, if you want to love asceticism in secret, read the life of the Venerable Isidore[1], so that you will know what gold the Saint had, what virtues she had, and throw away your false money, those copper ones, and from now on collect gold gold and hide them in your heart and lock them up well, so that no one will steal them.

Fools for Christ are not empty inside, but overflow from the overflow of the love with which God has filled them. Great Saints are these. They seem to speak foolishly, but in reality they give wise advice, which has great depth. Their humility is very great and they do not consider themselves at all. That is why God also makes them worthy to know the divine mysteries and to acquire many charisms.

– Elder, how is it that some Pharisaites, although they saw Saint Arsenius performing so many miracles, did not understand him, but judged him wrongly?

– The saints were more concerned with hiding their spiritual wealth than with acquiring it. Saint Arsenius also hid his virtues under various disguises, and it was natural that superficial people would not “see” him and judge him by his external disguises, that is, by the feigned oddities that they saw in him. That is, the Saint, wanting to escape the admiration of people, always strove to show them the opposite of each of the virtues he had. Naturally, those who had hidden virtues understood what treasure the Saint was hiding.

The humble and hidden heroes of Christ are shown to be the wisest in the world, for they manage to keep their spiritual treasure in the treasury of God. Therefore, let us feel great joy when we live in secret, for then we will see the face of God in the next life, feeling His presence with us even in this life.

[1] Venerable Isidore lived in the Monastery of Tabenisiotis, which Venerable Pachomius founded at the beginning of the 4th century. She humbled herself, humbled herself, and pretended to be crazy “for Christ’s sake.” She always went barefoot, and wore a cloth on her head, while the other nuns wore camel’s hair. Although she received many insults and blows, she never grumbled. The holiness of her life was revealed in a vision to the great ascetic Pitirun, who later visited the monastery and discovered before the entire community that Isidora, whom they considered crazy, had become Amma, meaning spiritual mother.

Saint Paisios the Athonite