Posted on 03/04/2005 3:27:21 AM PST by kosta50
1. The Misuse of the Incensive Power
Since we are approaching Forgiveness Sunday, I've chosen, with the blessing of His Grace Bishop Longin, to speak on the subject of Anger, Judgment, and Resentment, and on their cure: Forgiveness and Reconciliation. First I will speak about the problem and then I'll discuss the solution.
Anger, judgment, remembrance of wrongs, grudges, resentment: these are passions with which all of us struggle in one way or another. Why are we prone to them? According to the Holy Fathers of the Church, the power that causes anger was part of man's original nature, which was created "good" by God (cf. Genesis 1:31). The Fathers say that man's soul was originally created with three powers: the intellective or "knowing" power, the appetitive or "desiring" power, and the incensive or "fervent" power. Man was supposed to use his intellective power to know God, his appetitive power to yearn for God, and his incensive power to courageously repel temptation—beginning with the temptation of the serpent in the Garden.
Instead of using their incensive power to repel temptation, however, Adam and Eve succumbed to their first temptation: they ate of the forbidden fruit. According to the Holy Fathers, the essence of the serpent's temptation lies in these words: "Eat of this fruit and you shall be as gods" (cf. Genesis 3:5). St. John Chrysostom says that Adam "expected to become himself a god, and conceived thoughts above his proper dignity." [1] This is a key point which we'll keep coming back to.
When the primordial Fall occurred, man's original nature, created in the image of God, became corrupted. He acquired what the Holy Fathers call a fallen nature. He still had the image of God in him, but the image was tarnished: "buried," as it were, under the corruption of his nature. Now he had an inclination toward sin, born of his desire to be God without God's blessing. All of us share that fallen nature; there is a part of each one of us that wants to be God. In popular modern terms, that part of us is called the "ego."
When man fell, the three powers of his soul became subject to corruption, along with his body, which became subject to death and decay. Now man used his intellective power to puff up with knowledge and be superior to others; now he used his appetitive power to lust after other people, after the things of this world, after sinful pleasures, wealth, and power; and he used his incensive power, not against temptation, but against other people, against things, and sometimes against life and God Himself. The incensive power expressed itself as sinful anger and wrath. The first man born of woman, Cain, got so angry and jealous that he murdered his own brother, Abel. So, here we are, all members of the family of Adam and Eve, possessing a fallen nature that wants to be God, and a corrupted incensive power that gets angry at the wrong things.
Very clear teachings on anger and the incensive power can be found in the first volume of The Philokalia, in the teachings of St. John Cassian, a Holy Father of the fifth century. According to St. John Cassian, all anger directed at other people—all such wrong use of our incensive power—blinds the soul. He writes: "We must, with God's help, eradicate the deadly poison of anger from the depths of our souls. So long as the demon of anger dwells in our hearts ... we can neither discriminate what is good, nor achieve spiritual knowledge, nor fulfill our good intentions, nor participate in true life.... Nor will we share in divine wisdom even though we are deemed wise by all men, for it is written: Anger lodges in the bosom of fools (Eccles. 7:9). Nor can we discriminate in decisions affecting our salvation even though we are thought by our fellow men to have good sense, for it is written: Anger destroys even men of good sense (Proverbs 15:1). Nor will we be able to keep our lives in righteousness with a watchful heart, for it is written: Man's anger does not bring about the righteousness of God (James 1:20)....
"If, therefore, you desire to attain perfection and rightly pursue the spiritual way, you should make yourself a stranger to all sinful anger and wrath. Listen to what St. Paul enjoins: Rid yourselves of all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and all malice (Eph. 4:31). By saying ‘all' he leaves no excuse for regarding any anger as necessary or reasonable. If you want to correct your brother when he is doing wrong or punish him, you must try to keep yourself calm; otherwise you yourself may catch the sickness you are seeking to cure and you may find that the words of the Gospel now apply to you: Physician, heal yourself (Luke 4:23), or Why do you look at the speck of dust in your brother's eye, and not notice the beam in your own eye? (Matt. 7:3).
"No matter what provokes it, anger blinds the soul's eyes, preventing it from seeing the Sun of righteousness.... Whether reasonable or unreasonable, anger obstructs our spiritual vision. Our incensive power can be used in a way that is according to nature only when turned against our own impassioned or self-indulgent thoughts. [2]
Here St. John Cassian is telling us that, when we use our incensive power against temptation—against impassioned or self-indulgent thoughts—we are using this power as it was originally intended to be used, according to our original, virtuous nature, created in the image of God. However, when we use our incensive power against anything else—especially against other people—we are misusing it, according to our fallen nature.
2. Playing God
Often anger is evoked in us because of our pride. This again is a function of our fallen nature: that part of us that wants to be God. As would-be gods, we want to be in control, we want things to go our way. When things don't go our way, when other people don't follow our lead and go along with our program, we get angry. This leads us to judge others. Judging others is one way of playing God.
God is King, and He is Judge. Of course, it's best to be a King. Therefore, in trying to play God, our ego first of all tries to get above others and above life itself by playing King. We can try to be King in many ways. It may be by trying to run the show and get our own way. It may be by seeking acceptance, approval, praise, respect, popularity, earthly security, or an important position. It may be through our achievements and abilities, which are used toward ultimately selfish ends. It may be through vanity over our looks, our intellect, and so on.
Even if we were to have the world at our feet all the time, and thus confirm our King-status in our own mind, we would eventually feel conflict—for we're not meant to be King. You can see this vividly in the lives of celebrities, many of whom, having risen to the "top" in the eyes of the world, are filled with inward conflict.
Most of us, however, find it impossible to play King all the time. The world is not at our feet. We try so hard to get our own way and make things work out exactly like we want, but it just doesn't happen that way. People don't want to cooperate with our own way of doing things. We don't get enough of the respect and admiration we need in order to keep up the illusion of our Kingship. On the contrary, we often experience the exact opposite: rudeness, disrespect, neglect, abandonment, injustice.
What is the ego—our fallen nature—to do in this case? How can it still play God? How else than by judgment? As we said, God is King and He is Judge. When we can't be King, we take the loser's way of playing God: we become the Judge. No matter what happens to us, or what people have said and done to us, we can always seem to get above them by being their Judge. For a time it feels great! Other people and the circumstances of our life made us feel less like a god; they have hurt and humiliated us. But we can still be a god in our own mind by judging!
Judgment brings with it an exhilaration of false power. Its energy comes from the wrong, prideful use of our incensive power. But, like playing King, playing Judge eventually leads to inward conflict. If we are setting ourselves up in God's place, our soul cannot fulfill its original purpose of worshiping, serving and loving God. Thus, each time we judge, we're placing a barrier between ourselves and God. A wall immediately goes up.
3. Resentment
If left unchecked, anger and judgment will pass into what the Holy Fathers call "secret anger," "remembrance of wrongs," or "resentment."
Resentment—prolonged anger—is deadly to the soul. St. Tikhon of Zadonsk says: "Just as fire if it is not extinguished quickly will swallow many houses, so anger if it is not stopped right away will do great harm and will cause many troubles. [3] The Holy Apostle Paul tells us: Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil (Eph. 4:26–7). "If we take St. Paul's saying literally," writes St. John Cassian, "it does not permit us to keep our anger even until sunset. What then shall we say about those who, because of the harshness and fury of their impassioned state, not only maintain their anger until the setting of this day's sun, but prolong it for many days? Or about others who do not express their anger, but keep silent and increase the poison of their anger to their own destruction? They are unaware that we must avoid anger not only in what we do but also in our thoughts; otherwise our mind will be darkened by our anger, cut off from the light of spiritual knowledge and discrimination, and deprived of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. [4]
Why is resentment such a deadly sin? The Holy Scriptures tell us that God is love. Therefore, explains the Russian Holy Father St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, "Resentment or rejection of love is rejection of God. God withdraws from a resentful person, deprives him of His Grace, and gives him up to spiritual death, unless the person repents in good time so as to be healed of that deadly moral poison, resentment. [5]
If for whatever reason we do not forgive someone and hold onto our anger, it will truly be to our own destruction. It can poison our entire lives, make us the captives of the devil, and eventually prevent us from entering the Kingdom of Heaven. To help us not to lose our salvation due to resentment, God allows us to feel inward conflict. This inward conflict helps us to become aware of the fatal danger of the malady of resentment, and to seek to be cured by the Supreme Physician, Jesus Christ.
The inward conflict may take many forms. We may feel weighed down, unable to breathe lightly or freely, as if we are captives. We may experience irrational fear, commonly known as anxiety. We may become susceptible to physical ailments. In most cases, we will feel an inward emptiness. That emptiness comes from the fact that, by holding onto our anger and judgment, we have separated ourselves from God. We no longer have His Grace, His Life, inside us, and without that we are just hollow vessels.
Our spiritual emptiness may express itself in a generally dissatisfied and cynical attitude, in which we're always attracted to negative thoughts and words about others. We may try to fill the void with drugs or the excessive use of alcohol. Interestingly, the Alcoholics Anonymous "Big Book" says: "Resentment is the ‘number one' offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stems all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically. [6]
Sometimes our resentment hurts the person we are resenting, sometimes it does not. However, in either case we gain nothing; we only lose, for in either case we are the ones who are hurt the most. Let's say someone has actually wronged us. If that person repents, he will be forgiven by God. But if we hold onto our anger, we will not be forgiven and will suffer the consequences.
[To be continued]
I suspect St. Jerome's lion, which he tamed through an act of charity, is meant to be understood not literally but as a metaphor for his fierce temper.
He concentrates only on the fallen application of the incensive power of the sould. He does mention once, in slight passing, the intended use of the incensive power, when he says that we no longer use it "against temptation." Perhaps in the remainder of the article, which I assume will be posted later, he will discuss this. I probably also have this article on my shelves here, and I'll try to look for it as well as other references...
It helps to remember that Satan isn't creative. He doesn't invent anything new. He only distorts what God made. The difficult thing is seeing through this curent "veil of tears" to truly know what God intended for us. We often think we are being quite holy when we are just manifesting our fallenness in a different way...
Almsgiving heals the soul's incensive power; fasting withers sensual desire [appetitive power]; prayer purifies the intellect and prepares it for contemplation of created beings [intellective power.] For the Lord has given us commandments which correspond to the powers of the soul.
St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Love no. 79)
Just a taste of the "remedies" offered and recommended by the Church to bring healing to our souls: fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. All three are needed to bring us to wholeness...
"Nuking the Cube would normally be considered an Act of War. But all warfare is inherently sinful. Therefore, Nuking the Cube is sinful.
Comments?"
Indeed it is. I'd take on the mantle of chief among sinners, but +John Chrysostomos already claimed that one! :)
"Kolo, is St. Jerome St. Gerasimos? Reason I ask is the same Lion story attached to both."
No, +Gerasimos of Jordan was one of the Desert Fathers. Different guy.
As always, Agrarian, Kolokotronis, FormerLib, and others have expanded on the topic with great insights on the Orthodox phronema. Much obliged.
Anger always clouds our soul, even if it is "justified." That cloud obstructs God's light, and leaves us in the dark (passion), separated from Him. For that reason, anger is always sin.
Wars, whether "just" or unjust, are acts of anger and never of mercy or compassion. It is a product of our fallen nature, as Agrarian, points out, and as such it cannot be just. For we are all sinners, and fighting sin with sin is not just. Two negatives don't make a positive.
Western Christian concepts are different because of +Augustine's teaching of the "just" war as a last resort. This is characteristic of the juridical theology that prevailed in that region. Justifying violence in extremis opens a window to justifying sin as a last resort. As Agrarian points out, we are forced to defend ourselves because the fallen world forces it upon us, but we must never confuse that with righteousness or justice.
" Of course, you're welcome to swim the Tiber ... "
Towards Athens, Antioch perhaps? :)
Take a look at Agrarian's post 19.
Or take a look at Kosta's post #26
St. John Chrysostomos speaks of the importance and benefits in terms of repentance of our sins, of controling anger this way:
"Considering all these things then, and counting the recompense which is given in this case and remembering that to wipe away sins does not entail much labor and zeal, let us pardon those who have wronged us. For that which others scarcely accomplish, I mean the blotting out of their own sins by means of fasting and lamentations, and prayers, and sackcloth, and ashes, this it is possible for us easily to effect without sackcloth and ashes and fasting if only we blot out anger from our heart, and with sincerity forgive those who have wronged us."
Indeed:
"The forgetting of wrongs is a sign of true repentance. But he who dwells on them and thinks that he is repenting is like a man who thinks he is running while he is really asleep." St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent.
" I can relate to that. I've learned to tone it down somewhat, in my old age, but ..."
One of the advantages of old age, my friend, though truth be told, it was because of this very thread that I bit my tongue at least twice today!
Sugoi! (which is Japanese for fantastic!)
St. Isaac was soon called by God to rule over the Church in Nineveh. Although he ruled well as a bishop, affairs in the church there soon convinced him that he could not serve as a bishop. He retired again to his blessed solitude where he remained for the rest of his life. The writings St. Isaac produced in his solitary life have served the Church and the faithful well for some fourteen centuries (he died at the end of the sixth century), certainly a greater service to the faithful than he would have provided had he remained in the world as a bishop. He wrote from experience and guided those who came to him on the basis of his own activity. St. Isaac taught from practice, not from theory.
DIRECTIONS ON SPIRITUAL TRAINING
Today's teachings from St. Isaac concern the "three degrees of knowledge." Last week we looked at what these degrees are and how they are manifested; this week we will examine their effects on the believer:THE THREE MODES OF KNOWLEDGE
BEGIN TEXT -- These are the three modes of knowledge. From the time a man begins to distinguish good from evil, and until he leaves this world, the knowledge of his soul remains within these three degrees. The fullness of all wrong and impiety, and the fullness of righteousness, and the probing of all the depths of the mysteries of the spirit, all these are produced by one single knowledge in these three degrees; in it is contained every movement of the mind, whether it ascends or descends, in good, in evil, or in something between the two. These three degrees are called by the fathers: natural, contranatural and supranatural knowledge. They are the three directions along which the memory of a rational soul travels up and down, either when, as has been said, a man acts rightly from his own nature, or when by memory he is ravished on high, above his nature, in supranatural contemplation of God, or when he goes out to herd swine, having squandered the riches of good judgment, slaving with a multitude of demons.
HOW DIFFERENT DEGREES OF KNOWLEDGE AFFECT THE SOUL
-- The first degree of knowledge renders the soul cold towards efforts to walk according to God. The second warms the soul, hastening its progress towards that which is on the level of faith. The third is rest from activity, enjoying the mysteries of the future life, in a single striving of mind. But since our being is as yet unable entirely to transcend its state of lifelessness and the burden of the flesh, so, while a man lives in the body, he remains in a constant state of changing from one to another. Now, like a miserable beggar, his soul begins its service in the second, the middle degree of virtue; now, like those who have received the spirit of sonship in the mystery of liberation, he rejoices in the quality of spiritual grace which corresponds to its Giver; then again he returns to his humble works performed with the help of the body. For there is no perfect freedom in this imperfect life.
– In the second degree, the work of knowledge consists in long- drawn exercise and labor. Work in the third degree is the doing of faith, performed not through actions, but through spiritual representations in the mind, in an activity which is purely of the soul, since it transcends the senses. By faith we mean not faith in relation to the distinctions of the Divine Hypostases we worship, or the miracle of dispensation through Incarnation in man's nature, although this faith is also very lofty; we mean that faith, which is kindled in the soul from the light of grace and which fortifies the heart by testimony of the mind, giving it the certainty of hope which is free from all doubt. This faith manifests itself not through increased hearing fo the ears, but thropugh spiritual eyes, which see the mysteries hidden in the soul, that invisible Divine treasure, which is hidden from the sight of sons of the flesh and is revealed by the Spirit to those who receive their food from Christ's table and learn His laws. As the Lord said: if ye keep my commandments, I will send you a Comforter, "even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive . . . he shall teach you all things" (John 14:17, 26).
from E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer, "Early Fathers from the Philokalia," (London: Faber and Faber, 1981), pp. 195 - 196
That was lovely. Thank you.
Your reply is somewhat of a puzzlement to me ... perhaps we don't quite mean the same thing when we say "sinful". If I thought, for example, that committing adultery with my neighbor's wife was an actual sin (something to be confessed if I did it), I wouldn't be going around recommending that it be done. Similarly, If I thought exploding a nuclear device over Mecca was necessarily an actual sin (something to be confessed if I did it) I wouldn't recommed it in my tagline. So what gives? I would hope that we agree that actual sin is something that, by the Grace of God, we would seek avoid, to remove from our lives, even if we are the chief among sinners.
...
PS: Don't worry about the adultery bit ... no question in my mind that's a major league sin.
This looks like a wonderful sermon! I want to take my time with both parts of it. Ping for later ... when I that time to devote to reading these threads. Thanks for posting them.
This seems out of sink with the Orthodox mindset, as I have grown accostomed to viewing it. Why is the priest being denied serving the Divine Liturgy for something out of his control? It seems a penalty for something that does not deserve one.
It is similar to our canons regarding marriage -- divorce is allowed, with up to a total of three marriages in the church, with proper justification.
What would some of the proper justifications be? Adultery, addiction, abuse? And why is a person allowed 3, that seems an excessive amount of times one can circumvent their vows to God. Does the number have any justifiable relationship to the number of times St. Peter denied Christ?
From Kosta50:
Wars, whether "just" or unjust,
Gentlemen(?), you've convinced me that we simply are not using the word "just" to mean the same thing. Indeed, I have always thought the term "Just War" was a regrettable choice of words ... it implies that somehow this war is good, and that war is bad. In fact all wars are bad. Sometimes, doing nothing is worse that resorting to war. Hence some wars are necessary, or inevitable or the fallen world forces it upon us. "Just" war theory is a philosophical tool for determining when that has happened, and how we are to conduct ourselves during the war, and how we are to determine that the war is or should be ended. (I would note that the list of wars, throughout human history, that has been "Just" from cause to completion is extremely short. It may well have zero entries.)
All of the above brings us back to the subject of Anger. We Catholics list it as one of the Seven Deadly Sins. And for good reason. " Anger always clouds our soul" and any decision thus made is made to a greater or lesser extent apart from the Grace of God. This may include a decision to go to war. As Agrarian points out, we are forced to defend ourselves because the fallen world forces it upon us, but that raises a very troubling issue. If any decision to go to war, and any killing in the course of that war is necessarily a sin we shouldn't do it. Ever. Under any circumstances. Even if the fallen world should try to force it upon us. We should indeed prefer to die than to commit a sin. Some things follow from this principle. For example, we should not prepare to engage in war either, lest a sin of anger should lead to a further sin of (multiple) murder. Such preparation would be a near occasion of sin (whether of a nation or an individual preparing to use lethal force in self defense), given our susceptibility to anger.
http://www.incommunion.org/articles/essays/peace-in-the-fathers
The Orthodox Church doesn't take this kind of juridical or legal approach to sin. The Greek word for sin, "Amartia," means "missing the mark." We miss the mark all the time -- by accident, by finding ourselves in situations where we have the choice between two imperfect actions, through sheer weakness. A sinner is not a criminal in need of punishment, he is a sick man in need of healing.
War is sinful, but so is disobeying one's rulers, so is failing to protect one's country, family, and neighbors. There is no one path with regard to these difficult issues -- the guidance of the Orthodox Church seems to be in the vein of "whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye" -- or "do ye," as the case may be.
Sometimes Christians, in times of persecution, have fled to the mountains, sometimes they have stood in one place and accepted martyrdom when it came to them. Neither is wrong -- saints have done each, and some have fled for a time, then later not fled and accepted death, and the Church deems both as good things. It is good to try to stay alive, since death is never a good thing. It is good to accept martyrdom for the sake of Christ.
Finally, I would point out that part of the order in this fallen world is that God gives and/or allows rulers over us. Those rulers have certain responsibilities before God that we ordinary folk do not have. They are responsible for keeping order, for punishing crimes and wickedness, and for fighting wars when necessary. This means that by definition, they do things to other human beings that in the ordinary spiritual life would be sinful. Can one call "good" the clapping of someone in handcuffs and locking them up into a prison cell? Maybe it is necessary to prevent them from murdering someone else. But is is good to hurt someone's body and lock them up in a cage?
In a sense it is indeed sinful, but it is also necessary for rules to do these things because of the fallenness of the world. It is a heavy burden on their souls, and it is why we pray especially for them in church at virtually every service and do not judge them. It is a mistake to apply things that rightly belong to the personal spiritual life to the operation of a nation. Turning the other cheek is a formula for striving toward Godliness in one's personal life -- for a king to apply this to his nation is irresponsible and wrong.
But again, a central tenet of Orthodoxy is that we do not deceive ourselves. Even when doing things that are "necessary," and that are being done to help people, we don't pretend that these things are good. When a surgeon cuts someone's abdomen open to take out a cancer, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Honestly, how can it ever be ontologically good to slice someone open and cause pain to their bodies? Yet it is done, and it is, in a sense, necessary -- although one could choose to die rather than have it done to one, or die rather than do it to someone else.
We fall short, we move on. We don't try to play games with ourselves to pretend that what is not good is really somehow good. Anyway, those are my further attempts at articulating, in a circular way, some of the Orthodox mindset. Both K. and I, BTW served in the military. I don't think either of us saw it as being anything we are ashamed of, or as a transgression of God's law. I, for one, saw it as a citizen's duty. But on the other hand, I remember even at the time being acutely aware that however necessary it might perhaps be, one couldn't say that being a part of an organization that spends its time either training for or doing things like killing people and blowing things up was the best path or means to holiness.
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