Abba Daniel said: Abba Arsenios told us as if it was him the one he was talking about that an elder sat in his cell and a voice came to him saying:
`Come and I will show you people`s affairs.`
Standing up he went out and he was taken to a place where he was shown a black man cutting wood and making a heavy bundle and he tried to lift it up but he couldn`t. Instead of taking from it he added more wood and made the bundle heavier. This is what he kept doing for a long time.
Going further on he was shown another man standing near a lake and taking out water from it and pouring it into a perforated gutter from where it flowed back into the lake.
Then he was told again: come and I will show you another. And he saw a church and two men on horses keeping a pole one against the other. They wanted to get in and they couldn`t because the pole was put crossways and no one humbled himself before the other one to turn the pole straight and for this reason they remained outside. The old man said: these are the men who bear with pride the balance, as if it were of justice and they didn`t humble themselves to improve and walk on the humble path of Christ. For this reason they remain outside the Kingdom of God.
The woodcutter is the man who is in many sins and instead of repenting he adds more bad things among his sins.
The man who took out water is the man who does good deeds but because he has in them something bad with this he destroys his good deeds.
So every man has to pay attention to his affairs for not making efforts in vain.
Excerpt from The Egyptian Patericon– Abba Arsenios.
