Christian contemplation 4: of anger and gluttony
We are exploring Christian contemplation, and a quick refresher: Christian contemplation is the process of bringing what goes on inside us into our conversation with God, and being changed by that process. In particular we are looking at what the church fathers called the logismoi, the bad thoughts that can assail and wound our souls. Last week we looked at pride, and grateful wonder as the antidote for those problems. This week we shall look at anger and gluttony.
Anger is a challenging one – Rowan says the fathers have 'a soft spot' for it – and it is challenging because it is rooted in something which is good. Indeed, the other day I preached about Jesus turning over the tables; there is such a thing as righteous anger. That is because there are healthy forms of anger, as for example where it is rooted in an instinct of preservation, a defence of boundaries against attack or potential injury. There is also a righteous anger when we are confronted with situations of injustice, where we are called upon to help those who are being oppressed, and to defend them.
However, the existence of those good reasons for anger can make it difficult to deal with the anger that we can indulge in for for bad reasons, as for example when we try to defend a story that we tell about ourselves. Most especially there is an anger that is born from pride. That can take surprising forms. We are familiar with the anger of someone who is fighting to protect their ego, the examples are too familiar to count, but there can also be an anger that is performative, as with protest marches, that might be joined in for reasons that are less than honourable (“look at how virtuous I am...”)
The real mortal sin, that needs to be distinguished from anger, is wrath. Wrath is a settled disposition of ill will towards another, a refusal of forgiveness, an insistence on the impossibility of reconciliation – it is a refusal to let God change the story. So we need to be very careful about anger. Whenever we feel it welling up it is essential to bring it into the conversation, contemplate, let God teach the origin of the anger. Most of the time the anger will be rooted in an illusion, not in a truth about an injustice that needs to be remedied.
So what of gluttony? Gluttony is about wanting more than we need, as such it is an excessive appetite or desire (distinct from greed or avarice which is rooted in fear – next week). So Gluttony is rooted in a loss of touch with the truth of our own nature. It is bound up with not paying attention to our dependency on God and our interdependency with others, or a refusal to accept that interdependence. It is about occupying too much space.
So what are the corrections? Rowan links them to the beatitudes, here with the verses blessed are the meek, and blessed are those who hunger for righteousness. Meekness is often misunderstood; meekness is not about choosing to be a doormat. Rather, meekness is about the avoidance of worry, of fretting. It is not shrinking away from occupying our space but about allowing God to take charge of all this beyond our own control. It is rooted in a fundamental acceptance of our own nature, and being what we are made to be, no more and no less. Which of course is linked to the greatest virtue of humility, which is about understanding the truth of who we are and our utter dependence upon God and upon each other.
To be humble and meek is to not seek more than we need, nor to be less than what we are, and this is linked to justice, for if one takes more than is needed, others will often have less. Blessed are those who hunger and seek for justice.
Remember that Rowan talks about two basic passions in our souls, that we have to contend with before we can find peace. Rowan says this: “These passions of anger and gluttony can be thought of as summing up the two basic energies we live with and the two basic kinds of distortion we are vulnerable to – the urge to push away defensively, and the urge to consume and absorb. In both, we seek to build up a self-oriented picture of ourselves; and both are healed as we reconnect with what we are as created lives, reconnect in the stillness of a proper humility, which, so far from being weak or evasive, is a profoundly robust anchorage for ourselves and others. As we connect with the need of the neighbour, we are brought back in the work of finding a 'just balance' for the whole universe. And the grace that leads us here is a grace that takes us into the heart of our nature, takes us back to where we belong in the hand of God; being what we are because of what God is...”