July 24, 2011
‘a slow, wet Sunday’
Gospel:
From “Ethica Nicomachea”
by Aristotle
A thinking Greek
for the end at which boxers aim is pleasant — the crown and the honours — but the blows they take are distressing to flesh and blood, and painful, and so is their whole exertion; and because the blows and the exertions are many the end, which is but small, appears to have nothing pleasant in it. And so, if the case of courage is similar, death and wounds will be painful to the brave man and against his will, but he will face them because it is noble to do so or because it is base not to do so. And the more he is possessed of virtue in its entirety and the happier he is, the more he will be pained at the thought of death; for life is best worth living for such a man, and he is knowingly losing the greatest goods, and this is painful. But he is none the less brave, and perhaps all the more so, because he chooses noble deeds of war at that cost.
Sermon:
A lot has been said about the worth of life, it’s value, whether its riches are in its joys. The value of life and thus the tragedy of death as its negative space is measured in the void, the sacrifice of a hero or soldier is what they give for their cause or even their art or even, their passion. The noble warrior’s sacrifice of all his previous and future happiness is the measure of his tragedy.