Serenity/Necessity

Serenity, Necessity

Reinhold Niebuhr is the author of the well-known Serenity prayer. Less known is the entire text of the prayer:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen.


Meister Eckhart speaks in a similar vein:

It is permissible to take life’s blessings with both hands provided thou dost know thyself prepared in the opposite event to take them just as gladly. This applies to food, friends and kindred, to anything God gives and takes away… As long as God is satisfied do thou rest content. If he is pleased to want something else of thee, still rest content.
Amen

I have had trouble accepting this illness I have (bipolar disorder, among other… issues), not just its crippling symptoms, but its very existence and the seeming injustice of it. I am, for the most part, innocent, why am I suffering? Am I being punished for some unspeakable crime I know not the nature of? I felt that way for a long time, I would see any kind of police officer and feel guilty, a thought would cross my mind, “Hey, you’re not doing your job, come arrest me, I’m guilty.” I must be guilty, I am being punished. After considerable therapy, involving dealing with repressed anger and misplaced responsibility, I began to ask, ”Why me?” I took a step toward a healthier attitude and acceptance when another question came to me: ”Why not me?” In this world of suffering who am I that suffering should pass me by?

Life is filled with suffering, the acceptance of this reality, this fact of life, is a step toward healing. One of the great gifts of Greek culture, of the Greek Spirit was the nobility of facing alone and with perseverance, with courage, with ingenuity, with spirit and, yes, serenity, what has been deemed “Necessity.” Simply put, what IS, “The things I cannot change.” Thereby transforming tragedy into heroism and, eventually, into spirituality. Necessity is not spiritual, not a god, it is simply what is. It includes but is not limited to the laws of nature, it is not Fate, Fate implies at least irony, perhaps justice, often judgment, always some kind of larger meaning. Necessity, is, once again, simply what is. It is devoid of spirituality or morality. Part of Necessity, unfortunately, is that people suffer, people die, people, at least sometimes, fail. But people also live, are probably, at least sometimes, happy, and are sometimes victorious. As Necessity includes entropy, therefore there is about it a “downward pull”, that man must always struggle against, from whence comes heroism, victories, but in the end, Necessity is the great leveler, one rises above it through, courage, endurance, ingenuity, spirit and eventually must accept what comes, hence serenity. However; people, Man, does not always respond to necessity with heroism, it is often merely endured, but in some, Necessity’s downward pull is used opportunistically, for personal gain, sport, passing pleasure, power, all at the expense of other Men, in a word, evil. The seeming “success” of such misuse of Necessity leads to rampant evil among so very many, but as Necessity levels all, the evil are also brought low.
The Greek gods were blithely immune to Necessity; they merely tinkered in the affairs of mortals. The Greek Spirit was the spirit of Man rising above Necessity to the heroic (courage) and wise (ingenuity). But it is the one who perseveres who wins, at least while he perseveres. Then he dies, and a whole other subject begins. Afterlife, a subject treated in some way, at some time, by all known societies. Not part of Necessity but of mythology, the beginnings of Spirituality (not Spirit).
Enter monotheism, perhaps beginning as early as 4000 BC among the Zoroastrians. Developed by the Abrahamic religions, the…Jews, lets call them. The Greeks would encounter the Jews for centuries. The law of Moses, the Torah and all its developments produce a name for the negative responses to Necessity: sin, evil behavior and thinking. And an all powerful creator God, both judgmental and wrathful, punishing sin, to teach of its negative effects. But by turns loving and merciful.
In Christianity we have a loving, personal, all-powerful creator, God, who loves his creation so much He enters into it (The Incarnate Word of God, Jesus by name, a man yet still God) as part of His eternal plan to reveal Himself and His Love to His creatures. Yet there is still Necessity, and all it entails. It is now part of God’s mysterious plan, the part hard to reconcile with such a loving God. This God, as a part of His eternal plan subjects himself to all the worst vagaries of Necessity and what it brings out in people, Jews as well as Greeks, sin. He dies from it with courage, perseverance, wisdom, and Spirit. Were God Greek, He would be rendered to the netherworld forever. But God resurrects Himself, triumphs over Necessity at its worst, and sends the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God Himself to inspire and teach Man how to do the same. What of sin? It remains, but this loving God teaches through His Incarnation, Jesus, now The Christ, and His spirit that sin can be forgiven and conquered, and that love is more powerful than sin, evil and even Necessity.
Three gods say the Greeks, No, one God, three natures or persons say the Christians. The Greeks, now called Romans, see courage, wisdom, perseverance and Spirit in this Jesus, this Christ, they are curious and attracted. They have grown weary of their capricious gods. Christianity grows, conquers the Romans and the Mother Church is born.
As to suffering, He suffered greatly, perhaps still suffers, suffering with and for us still. So in prayer we might ask, “Why not me, in Your stead, for a moment…?”