November 12, 2005
The venerable Eastern Orthodox Fr. Alexander Schmemann lays it on the line.
Christianity
has muffed it on the joy-and-happiness front. First it has offered a
taste of the joy of celestial reconciliation. But somehow all-too-promptly there is a withdrawal from full participation, understanding departs, and human hands let slip the radiant priceless Pearl through preoccupied, ambitious fingers. The world, tantalized and deranged by the memory and magnetism of that savor, then searches in dark
and distant places, furiously nostalgic to regain the joy that was abandoned and betrayed by those commissioned to serve it.
What follows is a fragment from the Schmemann journals, 1973-83, set out by James Nee, who does us a great service by simply passing this work on to his readers.
The world is created by happiness and for happiness and everything in the world prophesies that happiness; everything calls to it, witnesses it by its very fragility. [The] fallen world [has] lost that happiness, but yearns for it and —in spite of everything— lives by it...
Christianity is divided between the conservatives (longing for a religion of law and recompense) and the progressives (serving a future happiness on this earth). What is interesting is that both groups hate nothing so much as a call to joy...[emphasis added]
Some say, "How can one rejoice when millions are suffering? One must serve the world." Others say, "How can one rejoice in a world lying in evil?" They do not understand that if for just one minute (that lasts secretly and hidden in the saints) the Church has overcome the world, the victory was won through Joy and Happiness. Dead end of the world with its "progress." Dead end of religion with its laws and therapeutics.
This
cyber space is dedicated to the conviction that happiness, authentically engaged and understood, is prime; that on this planet happiness and virtue
occupy a mutual and reciprocally fertile feedback loop: that virtue is a handmaiden and solicitous patron of true happiness, not the designated taskmaster to which joy must become a bloodless sacrifice.
Thus, it would seem that
any person, group, or idea that disparages alignment to the virtues,
abandons the opportunity to be robustly happy. Likewise, any
undertaking that is hostile or impervious to joy -- that hates, disdains, or attacks ordinary or extraordinary virtuous happiness -- is very, very suspect.
Flee.
Toward that one victorious secret hidden minute.
Well put, Dilys. This is something I have had to work on every day of my life, and always will.
Posted by: Richard Lawrence Cohen | November 12, 2005 at 08:23 AM
Of most men it may be truly said:
"You wouldn't know a diamond
If you held it in your hand
The things you think are precious
I can't understand"
(Donald Fagen/Walter Becker)
Herr Schmemann makes an important point, if obliquely: happiness is always and everywhere fleeting. Eternal happiness is not of this earth, so seeking it here is futile.
"Happiness is generic, and is applied to almost every kind of enjoyment except that of the animal appetites: felicity is a more formal word, and is used more sparingly in the same general sense, but with elevated associations; blessedness is applied to the most refined enjoyment arising from the purest social, benevolent, and religious affections; bliss denotes still more exalted delight, and is applied more appropriately to the joy anticipated in heaven. [1913 Webster]"
How do you contrast happiness of Schmemann with "contentment"?
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:
"Contentment: a state of mind in which one's desires are confined to his lot whatever it may be (1 Tim. 6:6; 2 Cor. 9:8). It is opposed to envy (James 3:16), avarice (Heb. 13:5), ambition (Prov. 13:10), anxiety (Matt. 6:25, 34), and repining (1 Cor. 10:10). It arises from the inward disposition, and is the offspring of humility, and of an intelligent consideration of the rectitude and benignity of divine providence (Ps. 96:1, 2; 145), the greatness of the divine promises (2 Pet. 1:4), and our own unworthiness (Gen. 32:10); as well as from the view the gospel opens up to us of rest and peace hereafter (Rom. 5:2)."
Am I falling over the semantic event horizon, or is Schmemann talking about a different kind of happiness than what Man usually strives for (and of course, never really achieves for any length of time)? That is, is he saying that what we seek is earthly contentment rather than the "true" or divine "happiness" we should be seeking?
I'm uneasy with the propostion that earthly Man can enjoy anything more than temporary glimpses of Happiness, based on my belief in the natural will to power, the constant striving, seeking, questioning nature of humans. Contentment I think can be in our grasp, since we can will ourselves into contentment, but happiness ... happiness is a blessing. Big question in my mind: is contentment a necessary precondition for the blessing of Happiness?
But then it is a Saturday morning, I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and I have not had my morning honey.
Posted by: Jeff Hull | November 12, 2005 at 10:14 AM
Maybe I'm feeling my way into a principle that says, with adequate virtuous alignment, what pleases and makes happy is worth pursuing. As Kingsley Amis says somewhere, Nice things are nice and nasty things are nasty.
Or as Byron Katie is fond of saying, Why would I want to spoil someone's fun, including my own?
There are wheels within wheels to be applied to refine these considerations, but the paragraphs obviously rang a deep note for me. It's one thing to refine the idea, but heading toward its anhedonic contrary is a danger signal IMO.
Contentment might be a frequent subset of happiness, or even a frequent precursor, but perhaps not on all occasions necessary to happiness.
Posted by: dilys | November 12, 2005 at 01:33 PM
Hi Jeff,
In the larger context of his private Journals, from whence the quote is taken, I would suspect that the good priest would disagree with your statement: "Eternal happiness is not of this earth, so seeking it here is futile." Its an eschatological misnomer.
Posted by: Jim N. | November 12, 2005 at 01:36 PM
So nice to hear directly from Jim N., who has retailed this wonderful material.
That's what I find so thrilling here, never elsewhere so straightforwardly stated; and have been unwilling to forego finally in this life. Without falling into the Earthly Utopia Means Search heresy, the eschatological chasm between earthly gruel and heavenly pie appears to be bridged in principle, where it matters. And in experience...it would be presumptuous to say that.
Having absolutely no interest in drumming up sectarian controversy, I intended to draw this to the attention of a private correspondent regarding the Eastern Orthodox catechumenate -- but here it is publicly.
"See? This is the 'oil of gladness' vision Orthodoxy quietly, steadily offers!" (Psalm 45:7; Hebrews 1:9)
Posted by: dilys | November 12, 2005 at 01:46 PM
Unhappiness is taking the easy way out--being satisfied with the low-hanging bitter fruit.
Posted by: Robert Godwin | November 12, 2005 at 06:44 PM
I think I agree with Jeff as to the attainment of some idea of happiness. It is indeed a blessing when I feel right with the world. And if that's happiness then I'm cool with it.
I wonder what Billy Holiday thought about happiness?
I wonder to what extent, if any, the allusions to "happiness" might exist in the song "Bitter Fruit" as it might apply to Goodwins quote?
Just musing.
Posted by: dan ramirez | November 15, 2005 at 12:22 PM
Thanks for tracking over from Richard's, [l']hombre!
Is this it? [http://www.bluerodeo.com/br/bitter.html]
"And I found out that I have a taste For the bitter fruit of life."
Me too. And the next question for everyone is whether that is a taste that is to his benefit to cultivate. Freud. Eros. Thanatos. Etc.
Posted by: dilys | November 15, 2005 at 02:23 PM