A teaspoon of concrete [Gen 14]

In the sermon on Sunday, the preacher talked about his other job. He builds houses. And if you are soft, effete, sensitive, you are told to take a teaspoon of concrete and harden up. True: saw the same thing when I was converting sheep to mutton working during summer holidays.

Last night I watched a movie — yes I still do, in which a tired, old, ex hit-man had to protect his son who had gone straight. The son was angry… where had his father been. His father had removed himself so he could protect the family from his colleagues, and those he loved from his nightmares.

And this morning, I was woken by a phone call from son two, who is walking 20 km a day round Europe, in winter, with little food. He will be back in a month. He has to endure.

For endurance and stoicism are needed to protect and defend. Abram did this, rescuing the weaker and softer Lot, and so do we.

After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.”

(Genesis 14:17-24 ESV)

This passage is exegeted in detail in Hebrews.

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.

See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils! And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham. But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.

(Hebrews 7:1-10 ESV)

We have to discipline ourselves. Even though this society talks about pleasure, and not duty, duty comes before pleasure.

Indeed, just by way of brief demonstration, the Western Tradition has spoken of the spiritual and moral struggle precisely in terms that denote manliness. Manliness and moral virtue are the same thing. Virtue is from Latin virtus, having the same root as vir, meaning “man.” The Greek arete, “virtue or manly excellence,” is related to other words with “ar” in the root, like arrenikos, manly.

The virtue of the “incensive” aspect of the soul – the aspect that “drives” our action – is called in Greek andreia, manliness, and in Latin fortitudo (fortitude, more than just bravery, means “manly firmness of will,” the resolve and courage to keep fighting despite fear, exhaustion, etc.). The chief vice opposed to this, is called in Latin mollities, meaning “softness,” equivalent to the Greek (malakias).

In both Latin and Greek, the term denotes “effeminacy,” if we are speaking politely; if we are speaking bluntly, they are used as epithets to mean “faggot” or “wanker.” This is the sense the word still has in Modern Greek, where malakos, “masturbator” is a common insult against useless or weak men.

Now, I don’t doubt that most men would balk at the suggestion that they struggle with effeminacy, or need to fight it! Yet, this is how the spiritual life has always been described by Pagan and by Christian authors; it may help, however, to know exactly what we mean by effeminacy. The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, gives us a good definition from the perspective of both Classical Paganism and the Church:

…this pertains to the reckoning of effeminacy [mollities], for a thing is said to be “soft” [mollis] if it readily yields to the touch. Now a thing is not declared to be soft through yielding to a heavy blow; even walls yield to the battering-ram, and so a man is not said to be effeminate if he yields to heavy blows. Hence the Philosopher [i.e., Aristotle] says (Ethic. vii, 7) that “it is no wonder, if a man be overcome by strong and overwhelming pleasures or sorrows; but he is to be pardoned if he struggles against them.”

Now it is evident that fear of danger is more impelling than the desire of pleasure: for which reason Tully says (De Offic. i) that “it is inconsistent for one who is not confounded by fear to be defeated by lust, or for one who has proved himself unconquered by toil, to yield to pleasure.” Moreover, pleasure itself is a stronger impulse than is unhappiness, for the lack of pleasure is a mere privation. Wherefore, according to the Philospher (Ethic. vii, 7), he is rightly called an effeminate man, who withdraws himself from the Good because a lack of pleasure disappoints him, yielding as it were to a weak movement.

We need, in this time, wisdom. But we also need to work. We need to protect and provide: we need to care and nurture. Neither are easy. But anything worthwhile is difficult.

UPDATE

I have had to strip the greek from the link to a scholarly monk. WordPress cannot handle greek script.