February
24, 2002
"The
Spirit of Anger" -- St. John Cassian
One of the best known of the Desert Fathers is
the fourth century writer, St. John Cassian, whose
"Institutes" and "Conferences" comprise two of the
most comprehensive collections of sayings from the holy men and women of
the ancient deserts. This text on anger, the first of two parts, is from
the "Institutes" and certainly speaks to all of us. We
highly recommend both these books to the serious student of monastic
spirituality; like the "Philokalia," they will supply
the serious student with many years of pleasant study and inspiration.
THE SPIRIT OF ANGER
-- We have heard that some people try to excuse
this most destructive disease of the soul by attempting to extenuate it
by a rather detestable interpretation of Scripture. They say that it is
not harmful if we are angry with wrongdoing brothers, because God
Himself is said to be enraged and angered with those who do not want to
know Him or who, knowing Him, disdain Him. For example: "The Lord
was angry and enraged against His people" (Psalms 106:40). And when
the prophet prays and says: "Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury,
nor in your anger correct me" (Psalms 6:1). They do not understand
that, in their eagerness to concede human beings the opportunity for
pernicious vice, they are mixing the injustice of fleshly passion into
the divine limitlessness and the source of all purity.
-- And so the monk who is on the way to
perfection and who wishes to engage lawfully in the spiritual struggle
must in every respect be free of the vice of anger and wrath. He should
listen to what the vessel of election (Acts 9:15) commands of him:
"All anger and indignation and uproar and blasphemy should be
removed from you, as well as all malice" (Ephesians 4:31). When he
says: "All anger should be removed from you," he makes no
exception at all for us as to necessity and utility. He should strive to
cure a wrongdoing brother, if need be, in such a way that, while
bringing relief to one who is perhaps laboring under a rather slight
fever, he does not get angry and bring upon himself the more baleful
malady of blindness, so that as he sees the speck in his brother's eye
he does not see the beam in his own eye (Matthew 7:3-5). For it behooves
the one who wishes to heal someone else's wound to be healthy and
untouched by any disease or illness, lest the gospel saying be applied
to him: "Physician, heal yourself first" (Luke 4:23). And how
will a person see to remove the speck from his brother's eye if he
carries about a beam of wrath in his own eye?
-- For any reason whatsoever the movement of
wrath may boil over and blind the eyes of the heart, obstructing the
vision with the deadly beam of a more vehement illness and not allowing
the sun of righteousness to be seen. It is irrelevant whether a layer of
gold or one of lead or of some other metal is placed over the eyes; the
preciousness of the metal does not change the fact of blindness.
-- Yet we have a function for anger placed quite
appropriately within us, and for this purpose alone it is useful and
beneficial for us to take it up -- when we wax indignant against the
wanton movements of our own heart and are angered at things that we are
ashamed to do or to say in the sight of human beings but that have found
their way into the recesses of our heart, as we tremble with utter
horror before the presence of the angels and of God Himself, whose eye
penetrates everywhere and everything and from whom our consciences can
hide no secrets at all.
-- And so we are commanded to get angry in a
healthy way, at ourselves and at the evil suggestions that make an
appearance, and not to sin by letting them have a harmful effect. The
following verse opens itself to this same understanding in clearer
fashion: "Be struck with compunction on your beds for what you say
in your hearts" (Psalms 4:5). That is, whatever you think in your
hearts when unexpected and deceitful suggestions rush in upon you, amend
and correct with the most salutary compunction, removing all the noise
and disturbance of wrath by means of moderate counsel, as if you were
peacefully in bed.
When the blessed Apostle made use of the text of
this verse and said: "Be angry, and do not sin," he added:
"The sun should not go down on your anger, and you should not give
room to the devil" (Ephesians 4:26). If it is dangerous to let the
sun of righteousness go down on our anger, and if we immediately give
room to the devil in our heart when we are angry, why did he previously
command us to get angry, when he said: "Be angry, and do not
sin"? Does he not clearly mean that you should be angry at your
vices and your rage lest you grow dark on account of your wrath and
Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, begin to go down in your dusky minds
and, once He departs, you offer room in your hearts to the devil? END
St. John Cassian, "The Institutes,"
(New York: The Newman Press, 2000), pp. 193 - 198
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