👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾A Homily on the Ethiopian #Righteous #Abune #Moses(muse tselim) Sene 24
Beloved in Christ, grace and peace be multiplied to you from our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we contemplate the divine wonders wrought in the life of our Ethiopian father, Abune Moses his journey from darkness to light, his ascetic labors, and his glorious martyrdom so that, like our Lord’s own grace, his legacy may illumine our souls.
1. From Idolaters to Robbers—A Fall from Grace
Our father Moses was born among idolaters, worshipping sun, moon, fire, and wind, instructed by pagan parents who raised him in superstition. Such is the power of sin that, though they feared divine retribution in their youth, they grew hardened becoming thieves and “Gefeji,” mighty in sins of violence and gluttony. Our Moses, like an untamed beast, roamed in banditry until his arms grew heavy with blood and robbery.
2. Encounter with Grace through a Christian Girl
By God’s inscrutable mercy, a captive Christian maiden kindled in him the first spark of repentance. Her words struck him like a hammer upon the rock of his heart, breaking through years of brutal darkness. She taught him that the true God transcends the created sun and moon that their glory fades, but His mercy endures. Moved by her firm faith, Moses began to question the idols and plunged into his own soul’s depths, asking: If the sun were God, why did it fail to save me?
3. Divine Call to Monasticism
In a moment thick with divine revelation, a voice from heaven summoned him to a monastic life. With trembling heart, Moses and his parents set out for the monastery of Asceticism under Abba Asdros. They entered not as conquerors, but as beggars before holy men yet found themselves among monks whose day was spent with weapons of war, as though the desert was still their battleground.
4. From Bandit-Chief to Humble Servant
Mercifully, Moses shed his former pride. Obeying even the youngest monk, he served humbly: fetching water at midnight, tilling the earth, lighting the lamps hidden acts of love he performed while others slept, that no one would glory in his deeds. Day after day he bore their burdens, and the desert itself wept with the rain his prayers wrought.
5. Solitude, Spiritual Battle, and Glory
After forty years of seclusion, Moses was elevated to abbot over five hundred souls. His authority stemmed not from ambition, but from meekness; he led new brothers to Christ, healed the wounded hearts around him, and fed those who came to him broken and weary. Thus the Lord confirmed his labors with signs rain and heavenly favor followed his prayers.
6. Prophecy and Martyrdom
In his final hour, Moses visited Abba Mekars, who revealed that a martyr stood among his disciples. Moses responded, “That man is me,” recalling holy scripture: “They who take the sword shall perish by the sword.” With the courage of one who had once wielded death in his hands, he planted himself before the invaders. He cried, “My youth bathed in blood; now my blood I bring to the Lord.”
Thus, on Sene 24, he fell by the sword of the Berbers his body counted among the honored in Asketus. Six slaughtered alongside him, they bore witness that repentance transforms a robber into a martyr.
7. A Legacy Carved in Stone and Song
His memory endures in Egypt and Ethiopia, inscribed on tablets and painted on church walls. His tomb stands as signpost of repentance’s power. Each year, on Sene 24, we celebrate not only the death but the conquering of death through the blood of a sinner made saint.
Continues 👇🏾