Concupiscentia, a word we seem to have forgotten; and what does is it mean - concupiscence? Perhaps the best description I have come across is from the book The Joy of Being Wrong: Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, by James Alison (A Crossroad Book, 1998), where he says concupiscence is not a sin, but the effect of sin, Original Sin (another half-forgotten term). It’s the state we all find ourselves in, even after Baptism, the state of disordered desire, of wanting things that hurt oneself, and pull one further and further from the things we really want but have forgotten and no longer feel so intently.
Every dimension of the human being - intelligence, sexuality, will power, affectivity, memory, way of being involved in history, sense of time, consciousness, and conscience - is radically distorted in all of us. (Alison, p.222)
This is what St. Antony, and the long train of monks throughout history knew in their being as they followed and continue to follow their Master, Jesus, into the desert. They knew that Christ’s radical act of surrender needed to be repeated in their own life by joining him in a personal act of surrender. This distortion that is pulling away at all of us can be overcome, because Jesus showed usl the way to overcome it - surrender not to the Law but to Him, to love, and this is what the monk sets out to do.
Because this rift within us is so profound an equally profound act is necessary for the monk and this is accomplished again by his vows, his pledge to follow the monastic way of fasting, simplicity, silence, solitude, and prayer. And the great irony, which we seem to have forgotten, is that this difficult path is the path to real honest-to-goodness joy. You ever see an old monk smile? Joy is what you see, the effect of a deep, transformative process that has worked its way on him over the many years. It’s like looking into the face of the future.
Why don’t more us realize such a future is possible? That brings us back to where we started - concupiscentia…
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.