Of course, these thoughts about snakes come because of the readings at the Liturgy today. The Israelites were in the Wilderness for forty years, and after a while, they got weary of wandering, and pretty much told God they were aggravated about the whole situation. That’s when the snakes came along. One can read all kinds of symbolism into those snakes: a guilty conscience that stings us, bad things that happen in this physical life, or even discipline from a God who is too much like the image of some earthly fathers. I have a hard time buying any of these explanations.
I think one of the reasons that kind of theology is difficult for me is that it takes a part of God’s holy and wonderful creation and heaps a whole lot of bad stuff onto it. Who are we to say that just because a snake bites with venom that it is evil? Obviously, that made sense to those early Hebrews, but with our broadened sense of science and our current knowledge of the animal kingdom, we surely realize that the snake is no more or less capable of good and evil intentions, than say, a tiger or a crocodile.
After hearing those lessons in church and sitting through the rest of the Liturgy, I had an experience that I can only call holy. I went to communion, returned to my seat, and began to weep. I have had this experience any number of times, yet I have always been a bit mystified when it occurs. The tears just begin flowing, and though I’m not feeling sad about anything in particular, I weep. There’s nothing verbalized in this weeping; the tears simply stream down my face, and I have no control over them whatsoever. I suppose the reason I have tried to keep this gift of tears to myself for so long is that we live in a society that is built on reason and objective analysis of everything that happens to us. So often, there is simply no room for what seems irrational, and yet I know that when I weep like I did in church this morning, it is so different from when I weep out of sadness or frustration or fear. The tears flow, but there is no sobbing, no extreme sadness, and sometimes there is even joy in the moment.
As I sat in my pew waiting for the tears to stop so that I could walk safely out of the church, I witnessed something amazing. A wonderful woman in our church named Mary is confined to a wheel chair with MS. She comes regularly to services brought on Sundays by one of several volunteers who get her and take her home. When Marian came to wheel her out of the church she left the side door that opens onto the front patio of the church open. I sat there for some minutes looking at the light playing on the branches of the cherry tree, whirling blossoms carpeting the floor of the walkway, and scooting across the threshold into the narthex. Various people were walking out to their cars, and the rain from earlier had cleared and left a freshness to the breeze blowing into the sanctuary. A deep sense of peace flooded over me, and I realized that I had a whole new awareness of the beauty before me and the community that I had just worshipped with.
So, how do I tie all this to the snakes? “In a celebrated passage, from Isaac the Syrian, the bishop of Nineveh is asked: ‘What is a compassionate heart?’ He answers, ‘The heart that is inflamed in this way embraces the entire creation—man, birds, animals and even demons. At the recollection of them, and at the sight of them, such a man’s eyes fill with tears that arise from the great compassion which presses on his heart. The heart grows tender and cannot endure to hear of or look upon any injury or even the smallest suffering inflicted upon anything in creation. For this reason such a man prays increasingly with tears even for irrational animals and for the enemies of truth and for all who harm it, that they may be guarded and be forgiven. The compassion which pours out from his heart without measure, like God’s, extends even to reptiles.’”
Tears are a sign of compassion and love for creation and a recognition of the wonder and beauty that is this world. They are a path to joy, recognition that God is present in every moment of our lives, and the giver of good gifts. May those who sow in tears, reap with shouts of joy.
________________________________________________________________________
See http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ReptilesAmphibians/NewsEvents/irelandsnakes.cfm.
K.M. George, The Silent Roots: Orthodox Perspectives on Christian Spirituality (Risk book series) (Geneva, WCC Publications, 1994) 62-65.
Psalm 126:5
