Self-Control and Community Life
Palm Sunday – March 29, 2015
Amma Syncletica said: “It is good not to get angry, but if this should happen, the Apostle does not allow you a whole day for this passion, for he says: “Let not the sun go down” (Eph. 4:26). Will you wait till all your time is ended? Why hate the person who has grieved you? It is not they who have done the wrong, but the devil. Hate sickness but not the sick person.”
[Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, p. 233.]
Today we step into Holy Week, which moves us into the final days of Jesus’ life. The week invites us to join Jesus in his journey through these days of betrayal, arrest, trial, and crucifixion.
Our stories from the Desert Fathers and Mothers this week invite us to consider self-control as a spiritual practice. These Desert Christians, living in the wilderness areas of Egypt and the Middle East, were monks (from the Greek word monos, which means “one” or “singular”); however, they also lived in community, sharing meals, prayer, and work together. A few were hermits, living alone in the desert, but most were in regular contact with other monks. Living in such close proximity, they knew the challenges of being around other people whose ideas, attitudes, and basic lifestyles were often very different from their own. Community life was a challenge for them – as it is for us – and invited them to address self-control intentionally as a spiritual practice.
As reflected in this Amma Syncletica saying, they knew that anger was an ongoing threat to life in community. It is the anger that rises up within me or you when we don’t get our way, when someone else subverts our plans, or when we are frustrated because life has not gone as we expected. Our Amma knows that this kind of anger may simmer within us over a long period of time, and that eventually it will explode when we least expect it to do so.
Syncletica refers to Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 4:26, in which the Apostle seems to allow for anger, but not for holding onto anger in a way that festers my own inner life, nor spills onto others as toxic waste.
“’In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” (NIV)
Another translation invites us to stop letting anger control us, and not to let it gain a foothold in our lives: “‘Don’t sin by letting anger control you.’ Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry.” (NLT)
Finally, The Message puts it this way: “Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.” (The Message)
When we truly value community life, we will attend to the anger within us that arises from the frustration of our self-will.
Amma Syncletica said: “It is good not to get angry, but if this should happen, the Apostle does not allow you a whole day for this passion, for he says: “Let not the sun go down” (Eph. 4:26). Will you wait till all your time is ended? Why hate the person who has grieved you? It is not they who have done the wrong, but the devil. Hate sickness but not the sick person.”
[Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, p. 233.]
Today we step into Holy Week, which moves us into the final days of Jesus’ life. The week invites us to join Jesus in his journey through these days of betrayal, arrest, trial, and crucifixion.
Our stories from the Desert Fathers and Mothers this week invite us to consider self-control as a spiritual practice. These Desert Christians, living in the wilderness areas of Egypt and the Middle East, were monks (from the Greek word monos, which means “one” or “singular”); however, they also lived in community, sharing meals, prayer, and work together. A few were hermits, living alone in the desert, but most were in regular contact with other monks. Living in such close proximity, they knew the challenges of being around other people whose ideas, attitudes, and basic lifestyles were often very different from their own. Community life was a challenge for them – as it is for us – and invited them to address self-control intentionally as a spiritual practice.
As reflected in this Amma Syncletica saying, they knew that anger was an ongoing threat to life in community. It is the anger that rises up within me or you when we don’t get our way, when someone else subverts our plans, or when we are frustrated because life has not gone as we expected. Our Amma knows that this kind of anger may simmer within us over a long period of time, and that eventually it will explode when we least expect it to do so.
Syncletica refers to Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 4:26, in which the Apostle seems to allow for anger, but not for holding onto anger in a way that festers my own inner life, nor spills onto others as toxic waste.
“’In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” (NIV)
Another translation invites us to stop letting anger control us, and not to let it gain a foothold in our lives: “‘Don’t sin by letting anger control you.’ Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry.” (NLT)
Finally, The Message puts it this way: “Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.” (The Message)
When we truly value community life, we will attend to the anger within us that arises from the frustration of our self-will.
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