Bože! A Grace Catholic Project
Moses the Ethiopian
Moses lived in the late fourth century, he was originally a slave whose exceptionally bad behaviour got him expelled from his master’s household. Moses lived as a brutal robber and murderer in the area of Nitra for many years. Late in life he converted, and spent the rest of his life as a monk, becoming one of the monastary’s most esteemed members. There is a small selection of Moses’ teaching in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers.
The Old Man said: If we are on the watch to see our own faults, we shall not see those of our neighbour. It is folly for a man who has a dead person in his house to leave him there and go to weep over his neighbour’s dead. To die to one’s neighbour is this – to bear you own faults and not to pay attention to anyone else wondering whether they are god or bad. Do no harm to anyone, do not think anything bad in your heart towards anyone, do not scorn the man who does evil, do not put confidence in him who does wrong to his neighbour, do not rejoice with him who injures his neighbour. This is what dying to one’s neighbour means. do not rail against anyone, but rather say, ‘God knows eachone.’ do not agree with him who slanders, do not rejoice at his slander and do not hate him who slanders his neighbour. This is what it means not to judge. Do not have hostile feelings towards anyone and do not let dislike dominate your heart; do not hate him who hates his neighbour. This is what peace is: encourage yourself with this thought, ‘Affliction lasts but a short time, while peace is forever, by the Grace of God the Word. Amen.’ – Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 142-3