There was a certain old man who used to live in the desert that is called Scete, and he had a disciple who lived with him; now this [latter] brother was adorned with the spiritual excellences of every kind that befit those who are in subjection to old men, and he was exceedingly conspicuous for his obedience, which was the greatest of all his virtues. And he was sent to the village continually by the old man to sell their work and to bring back whatsoever was needed for their habitation, and that brother, without any compulsion whatsoever, performed every command that the old man gave him with zeal and diligence. Now when the enemy of righteousness, the foe of the human race, and especially of the orders of the monks, that is to say, Satan, the opponent of all virtues and the hater of the upright life of the children of humankind, saw that this brother was overcoming and bringing to naught all his crafty designs by the might of his simple obedience, which was full of discretion, he made a plan to lay two snares for him in the path of his spiritual excellence, even as it is said concerning him in the psalm, as it were by the mouth of those who cultivate spiritual excellence and who walk in the way of righteousness, In the way of my steps have they hidden snares for me. Now the two snares were these: The first consisted in making that brother to pursue fornication, and the second was in making him to fall into disobedience; and the enemy, in his cunning, expected that the brother would not only be caught by one of these, and so become involved in both, but also that deliverance from the one would be found to be the occasion for his falling into the other, for he saw that he was being sent continually to Egypt by his master [on the business] of the work of their hands and of the matter of their need.

And they^[1] were seeking Jesus, but in an evil way. For blessed are they who are seeking Jesus, but in a good way. Those people were seeking Jesus that neither they nor we might have him; but we have received him who withdrew from them. They who are seeking are reproached, they who are seeking are praised; for it is the disposition of the seeker that finds either praise or condemnation. For you have this also in the Psalms: Let them be confounded and covered with shame who seek my life.^[2] These are the ones who seek in an evil way. In another place, however, it says, Flight has perished from me; and there is no one who seeks after my life. They who seek are blamed; they who do not seek are blamed. Therefore let us seek Christ that we may have him; let us seek him that we may hold him but not that we may kill him. For these people, too, were seeking him precisely in order that they might hold him but that soon they might not have him. They were seeking, therefore, and they were saying to one another, ‘What do you think, that he is not coming to the feast day?’

What does it mean, then, that the younger was blessed in the guise of the elder, but that under the symbols of the Old Testament and its promise to the people of the Jews a spiritual blessing has lighted on the people of the Christians? Pay attention, brothers! They hear about the promised land, and so do we. Scripture seems to be speaking to the Jews about the promised land, and it is we who are blessed with the true understanding of the promised land, we who can say to God, You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living. But it is our mother who taught us to say this that is to say the church teaches us in the holy prophets how to understand spiritually these material promises.