From the Club to the Monastery?!!

17/5/2012

The young man you see in this picture, Matthew Rodriguez, is now a Monk of the Coptic Orthodox Christian church, which is one of the strictest and most ascetic Christian churches around. But, he wasn’t exactly born with that outfit and a bible in his hand…and therein lies the amazing testimony of God’s work in his life.

I met Matt recently in the St. Mary and St. Moses Abbey, where he now lives. I had a chance to hear from him first hand just what led to such a radical transformation in his life. He grew up a nominal Christian and seemed to have it all. The slim young man of Irish and Puerto Rican descent was on his way to a promising career as a pharmacist, was in tip top shape and was popular as could be. Usually this is the set up for the dramatic moment, right? “He gets hit by a car” or “got hooked on heroin”…but the awesome thing in Matt’s story is it’s simplicity. While living a life disconnected from God and focused on partying and self, something internal happened that caused him to leave all that he had, and follow Jesus. When pressed to describe it he said “I realized that my life was literally leading me to death and I didn’t want that anymore.” He began to be aware of his eternity and Jesus became more than just a name to Mat…He became real.

His transition wouldn’t be easy though. This life was all he knew, and that’s what people knew him to be…but he wasn’t going to let that stop him. He was willing to lose friends, girlfriend, acquaintances -whatever it took He stopped going to the places he used to, doing what he was doing and picked up a bible. He connected with Jesus in prayer and began to learn of him through the bible. “As I read more and more, I loved everything I saw…but I remember thinking, ‘man, some of this is pretty hard to understand! I wish I had some explanations from the writers of this stuff.'” God would send him just that. Matt saw a group of his Egyptian classmates in pharmacy school and some of them were wearing crosses.

He always thought they were Muslim but the jewlery started tipping him off here. He asked if they were Christians and shared with them that he was struggling to understand the bible. They explained that they were Orthodox Christians, which is a church founded by the Apostles of Christ. They then invited him to the local bible study at their church, which was just what the Doctor ordered; line by line explanation of the bible using commentary from the disciples of the authors! The kind of study you can find here and here. It was from that moment that Matt knew that God had anwered his prayer and drew him to the Orthodox church.

After time of growing in the Christian faith and in the church, Matthew was drawn to the monastic life; a life of solitude with Jesus, prayer and simplicity. He moved to the monastery in Corpus Christi, Texas and began as a “novice” by the name of Brother Paul. After some time he was consecrated as Fr. Daniel St. Moses.

His life shows me that God desires not only the salvation of all of us, but also our holiness and that He’s the one chasing us…the moment we turn around, He’s ready to give us new life.

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