On Wellingness

You can’t be weller than well; that treats health as an asset. The physician isn’t for the well, but the sick. Seeking to be weller than all the others, you keep it for yourself, like the Pharisee who kept all the commandments and thought his soul was well. The doctor diagnosed him: he was sick as.

Ignatius calls the welling up of tears a consolation. For what must we be consoled? For our weakness, frailty, helplessness in face of the devastations of this world. It happens without us. Sometimes we cause it; sometimes it is caused. Where is the earliest cause? The prime vice is greed, though the ancients thought envy the worst of the lot. As a child I didn’t understand what’s meant by coveting, or why forbid it, what’s it doing in the Decalogue? It underlies so many evils. Land, and its resources; family advancement and security; national supremacy; peace and stability; grace and beauty. All to be attained and enjoyed by me and not by thee. Wellness: the earthly paradise. Can you envy another’s peace? Oh, yes. Wellingness: the welling up of compassion, remorse, justice, redress. Even tears. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 

On Peace: Ash Wednesday

‘My peace I give to you,’ said Jesus. A friend asked, ‘What does it mean? I pray all the time for world peace, but it has no effect. Can it mean peace of mind? I feel so responsible.’ Well, partly.

            Ancient writers viewed peace as cessation of war, with two faces: victory, defeat; triumph, submission. Conquest. Does the greeting ‘peace be with you’ honour the host, or the guest?

            In John’s Gospel, the world is a place of conflict and opposition. The peace of Jesus confronts world strife. Viewing streams of world-contending persons ascending Parliament Station, ready with earplugs, earmuffs, backpacks full of every possible necessity, and most unsuitable shoes, I saw how few accepted the cross of ashes and blessing of the day. Men particularly, with set eyes, seemed to think contesting the world their singular responsibility. Sometimes women with sidelong glances looked for a way out. Men and women at war with the world: all travelling together, though often alone, to the same destination.

            And the glow of those who allowed themselves to be blessed.

            The peace of Jesus is based on a victory: cessation of a war that ended in triumph. Therefore let not your hearts be troubled, although you are dust, and to dust you will return.