A story from the Desert Fathers
One night bandits came to the hermitage of an old monastic and said: "We have come to take away everything in your cell."
And the monastic said, "Take whatever you see my sons."
The bandits gathered up everything they found and went away. But they left behind a little bag with silver candlesticks.
When the monastic saw it, he picked it up and ran after them shouting. "Take these, take these. You forgot them and they are the most beautiful of all."
Not quite a consumer led spirituality, eh? A kind of ‘turn the other cheek’ response to a greedy, grabbing culture? Overcoming the evil of robbery by generosity that makes what is stolen a gift? Uncomfortable people those desert monastics. Wouldn’t want one of them to be the church treasurer, in charge of the church development funds…… mmmm.
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