St. Anthony's "madness"

“What fellowship has light with darkness?”

Among the sayings of St. Anthony the Great, one has appeared and reappeared as a meme on social media for over a decade. Some of you will, no doubt, recall having seen it at some time (assuming you are connected to pages similar to the ones I look at). Here is the quote in full: “Abba Anthony said, ‘A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, “You are mad, you are not like us.”’” [1] It’s a saying that is uncomfortably applicable to an age such as ours, which is why it has become so popular and repeatedly posted, notwithstanding its applicability to other times and places in history. Those inclined to attach some “apocalyptic” significance to Anthony’s words, however, may be reading a bit more into them than he intended. It’s not a given that eschatology was uppermost in his mind. What can’t be denied is that his words point to an ascetical truth – in fact, to an ascetical loss – that would have been, and still should be, disturbing to those earnestly desiring to follow Christ. Anthony was never one to shy away from disrupting complacency. His parable – for that is what it is – is primarily an implicit warning aimed at serious-minded disciples. It’s not addressed to the world; it seems evident that he was talking to fellow monks. The implicit warning is that they – and by extension, we – are susceptible to experiencing the loss of a crucial spiritual faculty unless we exercise interior vigilance. The question for us, then, is: what precisely is this faculty that marks the difference between what Anthony calls “madness” and its antithesis, sanity?