Job, Chapter 2, Verse 3
The LORD
said to the satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? There is no one on earth
like him, blameless and upright, fearing
God and avoiding evil. He
still holds fast to his innocence although you incited me against him to ruin
him for nothing.”
Satan is indeed our
adversary but let us focus on what our Lord tells us.
I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill
the body but after that can do no more. I shall show you whom to fear. Be
afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into
Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one. (Luke, Chapter 12, Verse
4-5)
It would
seem that Christ is talking about the Devil here or is He talking about our
very selves.
Christ may
have been referring to the rabbinic duality of yetzer hara, the so-called
"evil inclination," and the yetzer hatov, the "good
inclination,". Yetzer hara is not a demonic force that pushes a person to
do evil, but rather a drive toward pleasure or property or security, which if
left unlimited, can lead to evil (cf. Genesis Rabbah 9:7). When a person’s will
is properly controlled by the yetzer hatov, the yetzer hara leads too many
socially desirable results, including marriage, business, and community. In
Judaism adults are distinguished from children by the yetzer hatov, which
controls and channels the drives that exist unchecked in the child. Thus
children may seek pleasure and acquisition, but they are not able to create a
sanctified relationship or exercise the responsibility to engage in business.
The young adult is not described as someone who has developed a sophisticated
moral sense; in fact, the early adolescent may base moral decisions entirely on
fear of punishment. Yet by age 13, the child’s moral sense has developed
sufficiently to hold the child responsible for his or her actions.[1]
Another
Jewish source states:
ha-Satan,
the Adversary, was one of the “severe” agents of God. Another such harsh but
necessary force in God’s creation is the Yetzer ha-Ra, which is variously
translated as the “Evil Impulse,” the “Evil Desire,” the “Selfish Desire” or
just “Desire.” It is that aspect of nature, but especially human nature, which
drives us to compete, to fight, to possess, but most of all to desire sexual
gratification. Though it is counter-balanced by the Yetzer ha-Tov, the
“altruistic desire,” it is nonetheless the source of much of the grief in human
life – lust, violence, selfishness, vengeance, and ambition. One would think
that humanity would be truly better off if we could destroy this impulse. We
see evil in ourselves, it offends us, and we think the right thing to do is to
totally purge ourselves of it. Yet we don’t truly understand it, for things we
so easily characterize as “evil” actually spring out of the very nexus of
holiness. Surreal as it is, this maaseh makes an incredible point –
it is the strife of the spirit, the very struggle between our impulses that
makes the world work. Without the Yetzer ha-Ra, the world as we know would
cease – people [and animals] would no longer be driven to build, to create, to
have children. In short, life as we know, including not only evil aspects but
most of what we regard as beautiful also, would cease. Without Desire, Life
itself would slowly wither away, and that would be a sad thing. So the goal of
the spiritual person is not to destroy the selfish-sexual-evil impulse, but
rather to sublimate it to God’s purpose. To be truly what God wants us to be, to
achieve our fullest human potential, we need to learn to
bend both our impulses to godly ends. We should not cease to lust,
but should direct that urge toward love. We should turn our impulse toward
vengeance into the desire for justice, our ambition for acquiring possessions
into the creation of true wealth.[2]
Exquisite Purity
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.
No comments:
Post a Comment