We need silence in our lives. We even desire it. But when we enter into silence we encounter a lot of inner noises, often so disturbing that a busy and distracting life seems preferable to a time of silence. Two disturbing "noises" present themselves quickly in our silence: the noise of lust and the noise of anger. Lust reveals our many unsatisfied needs, anger or many unresolved relationships. But lust and anger are very hard to face.
What are we to do? Jesus says, "Go and learn the meaning of the words: Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice" (Matthew 9:13). Sacrifice here means "offering up," "cutting out," "burning away," or "killing." We shouldn't do that with our lust and anger. It simply won't work. But we can be merciful toward our own noisy selves and turn these enemies into friends.
It won't work because lust and anger are both rooted in our God-imaging: lust is the perversion of desire. Rather, perhaps it is a radical egocentrising of desire [I wrote something more about desire a few days back in relation to Buddhism]. Anger was exhibited by Christ in the gospels on a few occasions, rightly directed it is an expression of love faced with the marring of the beloved releasing energy to right wrongs. Turning them into friends, I think, is about reconnecting them with the wellsprings of life in Christ: that we may desire what will enlarge our hearts and our joy in othering; that we may be angry in the cause of righting.
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