Today, in the west, we elevate coherency to a virtue that surpasses all others. In an earlier entry, I allude to this issue in the context of politics.
We assume, without question, that our lives must conform to the strictures of an unwavering consistency. But this is impossible. And yet we further burden ourselves by demanding that we apply this standard over time, inquiring about yesterday’s behaviour to ensure that it is consistent with today’s. This makes the burden unbearable. And, for those of us who are privileged to be pathologically inconsistent (in my case, it is called a major mood disorder), the burden sometimes crushes us.
The bible condemns inconsistency too. Jesus lashed out at hypocrites (ones who pretend to be other than they are). It appears that Jesus applied the label to a specific behaviour—nasty intent disguised as righteous conduct. But today, we condemn people for having a change of heart, whatever the intention, whatever the conduct. Inconsistency, or more formally, incoherence is the demon we must root out.
I say we demand too much of ourselves in a matter that is trivial, and do so at the expense of more important considerations. For example, every bad person who ever decided to change for the better is, on one account, a hypocrite. If we elevate coherency above goodness, then not only do we reward people for their evil, we also invite them to punish us for our idolatry (worshipping coherency).
One of my favourite poets is Walt Whitman. He was decidedly not Christian. Perhaps he didn’t want to be accused of hypocrisy. He was, after all, a brilliant homosexual at a time when no Christian group, however liberal, was willing to extend the peace of Christ to the likes of him. In “Song of Myself,” there is a wonderful stanza near the end:
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
This captures a truth about this strange creature called homo sapiens. We are large, we contain multitudes. Maybe large enough, even, to swallow incoherence.
I find myself unwittingly and—as it often seems to me—unwillingly drawn to commit the sin of incoherence. I watch the sin wash over me even in the course of a single hour. At one instant, I am crawling in the depths, despairing that I will ever again walk on two feet. At the next instant, I feel warm with an overpowering sense of well-being. How can the future be anything but a chest full of possibilities that opens and spills its hope onto the floor?
The enemy is memory. When I am down, I forget that I was ever up. And when I am up, I forget that I was ever down. It is almost as if I live two lives in tandem, shifting without notice from one to the other. What is most pronounced for me (and what has become a commonplace for me), is true of everybody. But I am far more fortunate than you. I have been blessed with an incoherence that is so obvious that I must confront it directly, and in doing so, I have learned to forgive myself. My wish for you is that you, too, learn to forgive yourself for all your lapses. They are trivial next all the wonders you contain.
Hypocrites:
Matthew
6:2 — So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the street, so that they may be praised by others.
6:5 — And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites …
6:16 — And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting.
7:5 — You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.
15:7 — You hypocrites!
16:3 — King James: O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
22:18 — But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? … “
23:13 ff. — But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
24:51 — He will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mark
7:6 — He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites … “
Luke
6:42 — You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.
11:44 — see Matt 23:13 above in more or less the same form
12:56 — You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
13:15 — But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?