Coffee With Sister Vassa: 'BE ANGRY AND DO NOT SIN'

Coffee With Sister Vassa

“BE ANGRY AND DO NOT SIN”

 

“Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another. ‘Be angry, and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.” (Eph 4: 25-27)

On the one hand, the Apostle says: “Be angry, and do not sin,” (quoting the Septuagint-version of Ps 4: 5). But then he tells us to keep this anger short, and “not let the sun go down on” it. So, anger, which is not the same thing as hostility, is something we can engage productively, albeit briefly. Why, and how?

Anger is not a sin per se, but rather a God-given kind of spark, attributed also to the Lord (e.g., Mk 3: 5). It is not to be abused to ignite (self-) destructive hostility, say, in the direct form of an act of violence or revenge, or in the indirect forms of sarcasm, gossip, or passive obstructiveness. It should rather be a signal to ourselves and others, which, when conveyed and read properly, can be the impetus for productive discernment and discussion of the cause of it. And by “productive” I mean, the kind of conversation that is truthful and specific to the actual cause of our anger, “putting away lying,” as the Apostle says above, which can effect the removal of the true cause of our anger. 

If I notice myself getting angry today, let me first recognize and accept this anger. Then let me explore, in honesty and humility, and “putting away lying,” the underlying reasons for my anger. Was my angry outburst, perhaps, masking some kind of fear, like the fear of having lost control or being powerless over a situation, by lending me some sense of power and control? Let me let God into this picture, if this is the case with me, and re-embrace faith in Him, as in the One in control. Lord, You know what You’re doing with all of us, in Your mercy and grace. Let me do the next right thing today, to address any “signals” of anger productively, in Your truth, so that I don’t nurture them into quietly-destructive, little bonfires of resentment in my heart, or “give place to the devil” there. Let me do what I need to do; say what I need to say, and move on. “Be angry, and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.”

_____

From the early centuries of the Church's life, some of the great "masters" of the spiritual life - often the Desert Fathers - understood anger as a passion that needed to be "educated" rather than "eradicated." Meaning, can the energy behind anger be redirected toward our own sinfulness, to use one example? Or in reaction to the injustice of the world? We remember that the Lord's anger was directed at those who were making his Father's house a "den of thieves." Sister Vassa is offering her usual insightful advice of looking inward at ourselves, rather than outward at others. And that is always a challenge.

 

Can't Get No Satisfaction... Thank God!

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Relatively speaking, the meditation being presented here was written some time ago - Fall 2007. I am quite sure that anyone who read it then has long forgotten it! But for those who are new to the parish, and for those who are willing to give it another read, I thought that it would have a certain resonance since it was only yesterday evening when we chanted the Akathist Hymn "Glory to God For All Things" as we acknowledged the Church New Year beginning on September 1. I say that because there are certain thoughts expressed in the Hymn that led me to write this particular meditation.

* * *

Can't Get No Satisfaction... Thank God!

"My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." —Psalm 42:2

"I can't get no satisfaction" —The Rolling Stones

"I (Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones must be considered one of the great all-time "classics" of the pop/rock music world. 

I remember it well from the Summer of 1965. With its driving guitar riff and raspy-voiced lyrics giving a kind of pop-articulation to the disaffection of the lonely and alienated urbanite who, try as he might, just cannot succeed at "satisfying" the material and romantic/sexual goals droned into his mind on the radio and TV; this song - regardless of its actual intentions - managed to say something enduring about the "human condition." (I wonder if the various members of the Rolling Stones ever experience any genuine satisfaction after many years of fame and fortune). 
7
Be that as it may, a rather odd connection came to me between this song and a verse from "The Akathist of Thanksgiving" that we sang and chanted yesterday evening for the Church New Year beginning today, September 1. In Ikos Six of the akathist, one of the verses in the refrain reads as follows:

Glory to You, Who have inspired in us dissatisfaction with earthly things.

Both the Stones' song and the Orthodox hymn speak of "no satisfaction" or "dissatisfaction." However by "earthly things," the author of this remarkable hymn does not mean the natural world in which God has placed us. The refrain of Ikos Three makes that abundantly clear:

Glory to You, Who brought out of the earth's darkness diversity of color, taste and fragrance, 
Glory to You, for the warmth and caress of all nature, 
Glory to You, for surrounding us with thousands of Your creatures, 
Glory to You, for the depth of Your wisdom reflected in the whole world ...

To the purified eyes of faith, the world around us can be a "festival of life" ... foreshadowing eternal life" (Ikos Two). The "earthly" can lead us to the "heavenly."

"Earthly things" in the context of the Akathist Hymn and the Orthodox worldview expressed in the Hymn, would certainly refer to the very things the Rolling Stones song laments about being absent - material and sexual satisfaction seen as ends in themselves. But whereas the song expresses both frustration and resentment as part of the psychic pain caused by such deprivation, the Akathist Hymn glorifies God for such a blessing! In the light of the insight of the Akathist Hymn, we can thus speak of a "blessed dissatisfaction." The Apostle Paul spoke of a closely-related "godly grief." (On this point, I would imagine that the Apostle Paul and Rolling Stones part company).

This just may prove to be quite a challenge to our way of approaching something like dissatisfaction.

Our usual instinct is to flee from dissatisfaction "as from the plague." Such a condition implies unhappiness, a sense of a lack of success, of "losing" in the harsh game of life as time continues to run out on us; and the deprivation and frustration mentioned above. 

Why should we tolerate the condition of dissatisfaction when limitless means of achieving "satisfaction" are at our disposal? To escape from a gnawing sense of dissatisfaction, don't people resort to alcohol, drugs and sex as desperate forms of relief? Or unrestrained and massive consumer spending? And we should not eliminate "religion" as one of those means of escape. 

If those means fail, then there is always therapy and medication as more aggressive means to relieve us of this unendurable feeling. 

Sadly, many learn "the hard way," that every ill-conceived attempt to eliminate dissatisfaction through "earthly things" only leads to a further and deeper level of this unsatiable affliction. Sadder still, there are many who would "forfeit their soul/life" just to avoid the bitter taste of dissatisfaction!

If the living God exists as we believe that He does, then how could we not feel dissatisfaction at His absence from our lives? What could possibly fill the enormous space in the depth of our hearts that yearns for God "as a hart longs for flowing streams." (Ps. 42:1) 

It is as if when people "hear" the voice of God calling them - in their hearts, their conscience, through another person, a personal tragedy - they reach over and turn up the volume so as to drown out that call. 

If we were made for God, then each person has an "instinct for the transcendent" (I recall this term from Fr. Alexander Schmemann), that can only be suppressed at an incalculable cost to our very humanity. To put that another way from the Akathist: "Where You are not is only emptiness."

In His infinite mercy, the Lord "blesses" us with a feeling of dissatisfaction so that we do not foolishly lose our souls in the infinitesimal pseudo-satisfactions that come our way. Therefore, we thank God for the gift of "blessed dissatisfaction!"

When we realize that we "can't get no satisfaction," then we have approached the threshold of making a meaningful decision about the direction of our lives. The way "down" can lead to that kind of benign despair that characterizes the lives of many today. The way "up" to the One Who is "enthroned above the heavens" and the Source of true satisfaction. 

The Rolling Stones uncovered the truth of an enduring condition that we all must face and must "deal with." I am not so sure about the solution they would ultimately offer ... but in their initial intuition they proved to be very "Orthodox!"

May the Church New Year fill us with "blessed dissatisfaction" so that we desire to seek and love God all the more!

Coffee With Sister Vassa: PRAYING THE CREED

Coffee With Sister Vassa

PRAYING THE CREED

 

“I believe in God, the Father almighty…” (Beginning of the Apostles’ Creed)

I once read in an interview with the late John McCain, the U.S. senator from Arizona, that he scratched these seven words from the beginning of “The Apostles’ Creed” on a wall of his tiny cell in Vietnam, where he was imprisoned and tortured for over five years. These words, this profession of faith in “God, the Father almighty,” were an important part of what kept him going in a life-threatening situation.

How many of us really pray the Creed, – either this one, or the Nicene-Constantinopolitan one, more commonly used in our Orthodox Church, – and recognize its life-sustaining power, in the face of fear? Few of us have the experience of a John McCain, but many of us know the prison that is fear, which envelops us so easily when we abandon faith. 

I’m reminded today that we have very powerful, life-affirming tools in our Tradition, like the Creed, which can lift us out of fear and re-connect us with Life. “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of all things, visible and invisible,” I say today, from the bottom of my heart, as so many have said before me, and also say with me today, amidst their fears and worries. I need not be alone in any prison today, because I can re-connect with the Triune God and others, in what is greater and beyond the walls of any prison-cell, which is faith in Him. It is also hope. It’s hope in the new life He can bring us daily through the cross-carrying Way: “I look for the resurrection of the dead,” which happens daily when we rise after our falls, “and the life of the age to come,”which is always coming, and occasionally breaking into even the darkest of our places.

_____

In 2025, we will celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed (325-2025). That means that The Creed has real "staying power," as a concise statement of the Church's universal and timeless Faith. Actually, the Creed was completed at the Second Ecumenical Council in 381, but the basis of the Creed was established in Nicea in 325, when the great breakthrough in theological terminology strengthened the Church's claim to the co-eternal status of the Son in His relationship with the Father within the life of the Trinity. And that term was homoousios ("of one [identical] essence") We will spend a good time next year reviewing the Nicene Creed in honor of that anniversary. 

I am glad that Sister Vassa turned to the late Senator John McCain as the image of a true hero who withstood the horrors of being a prisoner during the Vietnam War. I did not know this deeply-moving fact about his use of the opening of the Apostle's Creed as a statement of personal faith that sustained him during that most trying of times. John McCain returned to public life as a very honorable and respected political figure. He was an image of political integrity throughout his long career.  

Coffee With Sister Vassa: ACCEPTING GOD’S INVITATION

Coffee With Sister Vassa

ACCEPTING GOD’S INVITATION

 

“And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast; but they would not come… they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business...” (Mt 22: 1-3,5)

Why does our Lord compare His kingdom to a marriage feast? Because marriage is a sacrament of unity, just like the Church is a sacrament of unity, which it “takes a village” to celebrate and sustain. It involves choosing to enter into unity with another or others, and suiting up and showing up (in appropriate dress) for that, rather than choosing to remain on our own, doing our own thing. The latter can be more comfortable for us, especially if we are like those in the parable who were the first to be invited. They had their own farm and business, so these were busy people.

Why does the king in the parable invite the super-busy people first? Probably because they really need to take a break from their own thing and do the king’s thing, for Him and others. When we become too busy to dedicate some time to communion with God and others, it’s a tap on the shoulder that we need to press Pause. Perhaps being too busy for God is not so much an objective reality as a state of mind? I think it’s not necessarily coming from a disrespect for God, as if He doesn’t matter. It sometimes comes from a subtle self-disrespect, from thinking I don’t matter to Him (and others); whether or not I am there, at the common banquet, or how I am dressed if I’m there, doesn’t matter. 

But the Lord is saying in this parable that I do matter, because God continues to go to the trouble of inviting me to join the “feast” of communion with Him and others. This “feast” happens not just in church, but daily, when I’m called for a time out to participate in some God-time and in other-people’s time, according to my responsibilities. He asks only that I show up in decent dress like any self-respecting person.

Happy Monday and Labor Day (if you're in the US), dear Friends!

 

'Think About These Things'

 

Icon of the Indiction

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

As we are about to embark on yet another Church New Year on September 1, this wonderful passage from The Epistle to the Philippians comes to mind (4:8-9):

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

The Apostle exhorts us to “think about these things.” That may actually take some effort on our part. For without having the time to pause and “think about these things,” we may have lost the inclination to do so. It would be spiritually hazardous to think that such virtues as enumerated here somehow come to us automatically, simply because we are “church-going” Christians. I therefore believe that it is imperative that we listen to the Apostle Paul and “think about these things” and in so doing give ourselves the opportunity to search out all that is wholesome in life. 

In this passage, St. Paul has essentially borrowed a list of virtues that were common within various Greek philosophical schools current in his lifetime. The pursuit of such virtues would lead to the “good life,” for only a life dedicated to such a pursuit would be considered worthy of living. St. Paul apparently continued to respect this centuries-old tradition. We should bear this in mind whenever confronted with other religious beliefs or serious philosophical schools of thought. As much as we may disagree with them about some fundamental issues from our Christian perspective, there is also much to be found that is honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and worthy of praise that are taught and promoted by these other religions and philosophies. To think otherwise would be to succumb to the temptations of a sectarian mind. A sect is a group that cannot find anything of value outside of its narrowly-defined borders. This eventually breeds some form of obscurantism and narrow-mindedness, if not eventually fanaticism. A “catholic” mind as understood by the great Church Fathers can rejoice in whatever is true even if found outside of the Church.

I recall a time when I was a seminarian, and the above theme entered into the ensuing conversation around us. Fr. John Meyendorff, the great patristic scholar, was present, and he was prompted to say: "I like to believe that Mozart will be in the Kingdom because of the beauty of the music that he created." 

At the same time, the Apostle has included this exhortation in an epistle that is thoroughly and consistently Christocentric. The living reality of Christ permeates all of St. Paul’s thoughts and actions. There is nothing that is worthy of pursuit that is outside of Christ. For the Apostle Paul nothing will be able to compare with the knowledge of Christ. And this “knowledge” is not intellectual but deeply experiential. In one of his most famous passages in Philippians (3:7-8) he writes:

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse(Gk. skivala = rubbish, dung, excrement,) in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him …”

 

Anything that is of the truth somehow belongs to Christ and comes from Christ – even if not acknowledged. So the virtues that St. Paul exhorts the Philippians to pursue are found in Christ in a most preeminent form. Those virtues – though taught and found elsewhere - will find their most perfect manifestation in Christ. Yet the point remains that we can rejoice in all that is good wherever we encounter it. The Apostle assures us that with such an approach to life, the “God of peace” will be with us.

With the end of August, we have arrived at the end of the Church Year and prepare for the next. We have had every opportunity to deepen our relationship with Christ through the ongoing rhythm of fasting and feasting according to the Church liturgical calendar and, of course, in the Eucharist, the "sacrament of sacraments." The feasts of the Church and the Liturgy have actualized the presence of Christ and the Theotokos in the midst of the grace-filled life of the Church - the "sanctification of time as it has been called" - and within the depths of our minds and hearts. We have been further nurtured by the Word of God as proclaimed in the Holy Scriptures in our liturgical assemblies and in the quiet of our rooms with the door shut. As we live our lives in the surrounding world, perhaps we have been deeply and positively impacted through our human relationships, the beauty of the natural world, or an enduring work of art. 

These God-given encounters reveal to us all that is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent and worthy of praise. In other words, we have had every opportunity to simply become more human - and, in becoming more human, we simultaneously draw closer to God. Further, the richness of life presupposes our ever-vigilant struggle against sin and our ongoing repentance. The Prayer of the Hours reveals to us the fruits of repentance: to "sanctify our souls, purify our bodies, correct our minds, cleanse our thoughts; and deliver us from all tribulation, evil and distress." That is indeed a great endeavor, "but with God all things are possible." (Mt. 19:27)

May the Church New Year be a blessing for everyone and for our parish community!