The past several years I have found spiritual companionship with the desert spirituality of the late antiquity period. I am by no means a scholar on this topic or the complexity of the people we call the “Desert Mothers and Fathers.” Much of what we have of their sayings is odd in the surface unless you spend some time with their worldview. It has taken me a while just to begin to make sense of some of these what look to be odd sayings. For instance:
Abba Nisterus the Great was walking in the desert with a brother and when they saw a serpent they ran away. The brother said, “Were you afraid, too, father?” The old man said, “I am not afraid, child, but it’s good for me to flee since then I won’t have to flee the spirit of vainglory.”
Abba Nisterus ran away from something he was not afraid of, but others were. Had he not run away from the serpent, then when Abba Nisterus caught up with the brother who did run away, he might unintentionally make the brother feel less or shameful for being afraid of a serpent. And so, Abba Nisterus runs away from the serpent so that when he faces the brother he will not have to face the prideful idea that he is better or more brave than the brother. It is easier to run from a snake than from pride (aka: vainglory).
It is common to run from what you fear. That makes a biological sense. What does not make much sense at all is running from what you do not fear. Why would anyone run from that which they are not afraid? So that we do not grow prideful. When we are full of pride (in spirit of vainglory) then we begin to think less of others. We begin to consider how brave we are as others cower and run.
For Nisterus, not running from a serpent would mean running toward pride.
And being full of pride can really hurt you.