The Old Man’s Sheepskin

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” — 2 Timothy 4:7 (KJV)

Antony lived to be about 105 years old. Athanasius says that even in old age he stayed strong. His eyesight was clear, he still had his teeth, and he was strong in hands and feet. He was cheerful to the end.

Athanasius also notes something important about Antony’s miracles. When people were healed through his prayers, Antony insisted that it was Christ who healed, not him. He never wanted the glory for himself.

When he knew he was dying, Antony called the two monks who had looked after him for fifteen years. His last words to them were simple and full of love. He told them not to give up what they had begun, but to keep going “as though now making a beginning”. And then:

“Wherefore fear them not, but rather ever breathe Christ, and trust Him. Live as though dying daily.”

“Ever breathe Christ.” What a beautiful phrase. Just as you breathe without stopping, let Christ fill every moment of your life.

He asked them to bury him quietly, in a place no one else would know, because he didn’t want people making a fuss over his body. And he gave away his few belongings. One of his sheepskins went to his friend, Bishop Athanasius, along with the cloak he was lying on, which Athanasius had given him years before, new, and which had grown old with him.

Then Athanasius describes his death. Antony lifted his feet, and his face lit up with joy, “as though he saw friends coming to him and was glad because of them”, and he died.

Athanasius says that Antony became famous across the world, in Spain, Gaul, Rome and Africa, not because of books or worldly wisdom, “but solely from his piety towards God.”

Antony started as a teenager who heard one verse and obeyed it. He finished as an old man who had kept the faith for nearly ninety years. Your life with God may look very different from his. But it can start the same way: hearing Jesus speak, and saying yes.

One thing to do this week: write Antony’s last words, “ever breathe Christ”, somewhere you will see them. This week, try to turn your thoughts to Jesus at regular moments in the day: waking, eating, travelling, going to sleep.