Why St. Isaiah's call to anger is necessary in our times

"From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force." -Matthew 11:12

click here

St. Moses once plunging into despair over his own lack of self-control during the early days in the monastery sought counsel from his abbot, St. Isidore. Upon hearing his complaint about his own spiritual progress, St. Isidore took St. Moses to the rooftop of the house just before sunrise. As the sun broke on the horizon, St. Isidore said, “See! The light only gradually drives away the darkness. So it is with the soul.” -The Sayings Of The Desert Fathers

"Without anger, a man cannot attain purity: he has to feel angry with all the is sown in him by the enemy." St. Isaiah The Solitary (Twenty-Seven Texts On Guard the Intellect, The Philokalia)

I often used to wonder about the expressions in many of the icons. I have seen many questionings among converts, that they also wonder at some of the expressions of saints in their images. Many of them appear angry. Or maybe resolute or focused. This seems to be the nature of stillness, the representation of dispassion. This is not the Buddhist principle of no desire; it is your control over your desires. The death of yourself in Christianity is not the destruction of yourself in other religions. The death is not the end goal. 

St. Isaiah The Solitary says "this anger is in accordance with nature." Perhaps we see this commonly in the scriptures as the "wrath of God." We know this is not the same thing as hatred for he goes on to say: "If you find yourself hating your fellow men, and resist this hatred, and you see that it grows weak and withdraws, do not rejoice...your wretched soul will be caught..."

We often look at the triumph of forgiveness and mercy in the figures of our age, some of them even Christian such as Desmon Tutu or Martin Luther King Jr. But St. Isaiah warns us to not rejoice if we find these virtues within us, lest we be led to prelest (the illusion that we are good in and of ourselves and as if it is a static thing we are not to consistently struggle for)

And so we see in the icons this resoluteness in the saints and Christ and The Theotokos. We see this holy anger.

Anger and resoluteness are sisters for St. Seraphim of Sarov says, "man lacks but one thing: a firm resolve." So you see this gaze in the enlightened eyes of the saints a fire that burns like the eyes of Christ in the book of Revelation.

The icons stand to convict us of what we should also be doing. They stand to call us saying, "Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. (1 Cor. 16:13)"

We see that there is a resoluteness to maintain and an anger to foster. This is not the image of "peaceful" people smelling flowers and gently removing bugs from their rooms. Things such as these have their place. But more so, we must see that there is struggle and this struggle must have at its root a certain anger at what sin is and what it does, a certain anger at temptation and the demons who sway men.

Most importantly, this anger should be within and directed at the false self. St. Siluoan once said in The Monk Of Mt. Athos that a man can know the state of the world by dwelling within his own heart. The world will remain fallen and broken until The End Of Days. Any attempt to solve anything will end in your own destruction. Dwell within the source of good, the triune God, and you will naturally become a beacon of light and hope. Virtues and good works are not the end but a means. Remember your death and mine and the death of everyone you meet and love. Bring your existence into perspective and grapple with purpose. 

We seek to do good to numb the inner nihilism of our Satanic age. But that's all it does is numb the wounds of secularism, in the denial of death and the creation of false meaning apart from metaphysical truth. I must not give sway to such ideologies. And so, I foster this anger within me, because I have seen what the enemy has sown within me and my generation.

It is an anger I must keep within until death for "he who endures to the end will be saved (Matt. 24:13)." And as St. Anthony The great said, "This is the great work of man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath." Fight always and stay alert, stay "woke." 

"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world." - 1 Peter 5: 8-9