by CCW | 14 November 2010 14:16
Repentance leads to joy. There is something powerful in that idea. It is splendidly illustrated for us in the second lesson this morning in the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin.
Repentance is redire ad principium, a kind of circling back to the truth from which we have turned. The idea of turning back to the truth in the awareness of the ways in which we so easily turn away from it, is one of the recurring lessons of the Scriptures. It is an important part of the good news, the good news that results in rejoicing actually.
Ecclesiasticus or the Wisdom of Jesu Ben Sirach, is one of the Books of the Apocrypha. It belongs to an ancient tradition of “wisdom literature” and, indeed, offers many a profound instruction on moral and spiritual ideas. In this morning’s first lesson[1], we are reminded about the destructive effects of anger and wrath. They are “abominations.” They are possessed by the sinful man and woman and they possess us. The desire for vengeance arises from anger and wrath and is set in explicit opposition to the idea and concept of forgiveness and healing. Ecclesiasticus would recall us to the commandments of God, to their positive force for the good that redeems us from our rage to lash out and destroy.
These are profound lessons and show something of the wisdom of the wisdom literature and how important a place they have in the reading and thinking life of the Church. In many ways, the Books of the Apocrypha, books written between the time of the writing down of the Old Testament and the emergence of the New Testament, anticipate some of the central themes of the Christian Gospel, especially in terms of moral instruction. In this case, the themes of forgiveness and joy are juxtaposed with the destructive forces of anger and wrath.
In calling us to be true to the commandments, Ecclesiasticus hints at an important insight. What is our anger and our wrath really about? In the developed Christian moral teaching that is built upon this tradition as well as upon the moral reflections of pagan antiquity, anger and wrath are really sins against God that wreak havoc in our souls and in the community of souls. Why sins against God? Simply because we are angry that things are not the way we want them to be. We want to be in control. We want to be God. All sin, after all, comes down to pride.
Wrath is simply ‘Anger Plus’. Plus what? More irrationality. We jettison any sense of rational restraint. Our frustrations about what we perceive to be an obstacle in our way is expressed in the mindlessness of destruction. Smashing something or someone is our way of expressing our desire for power and control. Foolishly contradictory, of course, but only too common. We all know this in one way or another.
The ancient Epic of Gilgamesh deals with how the hero comes to be the hero of the ancient Sumerian world and in particular with how he begins to become wise. A life-long lesson in a world of utter uncertainties where chaos just might be a far more powerful force than order, the illustrations of Gilgamesh’s education are intriguing and profound and speak, paradoxically, to the sophisticated barbarisms of our all-too-violent contemporary culture.
Dismayed and in despair at the death of his friend Enkidu, Gilgamesh goes on a quest for wisdom as distinct from the adventures of great deeds and derring-do by which heroes make a name for themselves anciently (and modernly!). He goes to the ends of the world and beyond to question Utnapishtim “concerning life and death.” In the garden of the gods, he meets Siduri, the wine-women. Her advice to him is simply “to eat, drink and be merry.” As another book of wisdom, one of the canonical texts of the Jewish Scriptures or the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes (not to be confused with Ecclesiasticus), puts it: “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die.” The same thing is here in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Siduri’s advice is to embrace the philosophy of hedonism, the philosophy of pleasure, pleasure in the moment because there is nothing else worth living for. It is a kind of fatalism, both ancient and modern, dare I say.
It is to Gilgamesh’s credit that he rejects her advice. He will persist in his pursuit of wisdom. Yet, in his soul, as in ours, perhaps, there lurks the very inclinations and tendencies that get in the way of our learning. Siduri tells him that to cross the waters of ocean and the waters of death he needs to see Utnaphistim’s ferryman, Urshanabi, to see if it is even possible for him to get to where Utnaphistim is in the land of Dilmun. But the very idea that there might be an obstacle to his desire sends Gilgamesh into a rage and a tantrum in which he destroys the tackle of the boat, the very means that would have conveyed him on his quest across the waters of ocean and death. Anger and wrath are self-destructive and illustrate the contradictions in our souls. This is the wisdom, too, of Ecclesiasticus. The counter is a more reflective view about ourselves and one another. “Remember the covenant of the Most High and overlook ignorance,” Ecclesiasticus advises.
Be wise, only so, might you also be happy or not. Luke’s great parables of redemption[2], the lost sheep and the lost coin, lead us to the parable of the lost son, the parable of the prodigal son. We are recalled to the house of wisdom, to the recollection of our souls in the father’s love. There is rejoicing because what was lost is found. We are found. This is the greater wisdom of the Gospel. Far more precious than a coin or even a sheep are our souls. Wisdom would recall us to truth. Repentance is about our turning to the truth, the truth revealed in the witness of the Scriptures to the love of God for us in Jesus Christ. In him we find our beginning and our end. Only through repentance can we hope for rejoicing. It is found in the one who turns to us and who seeks us out when we are lost and gone. Against our anger and wrath, he calls us to repentance and to rejoice.
Fr. David Curry
Trinity XXIV, ‘2010, MP 10:30am
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