Christian Thoughts #001: on "the Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

 

   THE Rime of the Ancient Mariner was published in 1798 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an English poet. This particular work was his longest poem. And boy is it long. I found out the hard way.

   It all began after I got home from work one night. Work was murder, as they say, and I wanted to relax. Mindlessly relax. And what better way to do that then by watching Looney Tunes on Youtube? During the course of the entertainment, my wife and I came across an episode starring Bugs Bunny entitled Water, Water Every Hare.

   The title stuck out to me. I felt like I should have remembered it, though I didn't. We skipped the episode and went to bed. The next day, it all came back to me. The title was the parody of a line from a poem I had read a long time ago:

   Water, water everywhere,
   And all the boards did shrink.
   Water, water everywhere,
   Nor any drop to drink.

   Of course this led me to search out the old Rime, which I quickly located, and then in a fit of excitement, I declared I would read it aloud to my wife. Women love poetry, right? Right. And while my better half may have enjoyed the reading, my tongue felt as dry as cotton by the time I reached the halfway point. Like I said: it's a loooooong read.

   But when all was said and done, and that old Mariner had told his tale, leaving the wedding-guest awe struck and baffled... I had a few choice thoughts.

   I don't presume to know just why the Ancient Mariner shot the Albatross with his crossbow, but here's what I do know.

   First, the Albatross seemed to have helped guide their ship out of the glaciers of the Antarctic, or at the very least, they considered the bird a good omen, hailing it as a "Christian soul". When they had come out of the ice, the Albatross then represented some kind of fortune and salvation.

  Secondly, the Ancient Mariner shoots the Albatross. No reason is given for his action. The bird apparently ate food from the sailors on the ship and resided with the men during their escape from the ice. With it always around, and with danger well past once they had escaped, perhaps the Ancient Mariner simply took the Albatross for granted, considered it a common thing and killed it for no good reason, showing that what had once been hailed as a "Christian soul" had become to him something that was absolutely worthless.

   Thirdly, all hell breaks loose. After the killing of the Albatross, every possible terrible thing that could happen to a crew of men on a sea-vessel happens. All the men die one by one, their faces frozen in curses upon the Mariner. A ghost ship appears with Death on it. Snakes writhe in the ocean. The wind dies out. There's no water to drink. And most significantly, before the crew dies, they tie the dead Albatross around the Ancient Mariner's neck in place of the cross he wore there.

   Ah! well-a-day! what evil looks
   Had I from old and young!
   Instead of the cross, the Albatross
   About my neck was hung.

   This is some very strong imagery here: the helper or the savior is first hailed as valuable, then is taken for granted or considered common, then killed off insensibly and then worn around the neck as a man wears a cross on a necklace.

   It's true that when a man or a woman, or a child, first becomes a Christian soul themselves, Christ is everything to them. They are enamored with Jesus as a person falling in love. They have seen their sin and seen the value of their Savior, who guided them out of darkness, with them all the way, as they stepped into the light.

   But like the Ancient Mariner, if we so allow it, Christ becomes commonplace, without value and almost worthless. He goes from Savior to homeboy to just some guy that you met once, that you remember maybe with fondness, maybe with aloofness. And a Christian soul can so put to death the Lord of Life in their thoughts, their heart and their attention.

   Like the children of Israel that were wandering the wilderness for forty years: they came to despise the manna, the bread from heaven, which is a portrait of the One who said of Himself "I am the Bread of Life". They had the miraculous manna everyday to eat. It saved them from starvation. But it became commonplace to them until they despised it, the very thing which saved them.

   And suddenly, church is no longer exciting. Suddenly, the Bible is dull and lifeless. Suddenly, sermons become unpleasant and boring. Suddenly, other Christians appear masqued and stupid. Suddenly, God seems to be a grandfather again, an old man who cares little for your everyday struggles, who sent you a birthday card once with a dollar in it, and nothing more. Suddenly, love has grown cold.

   But the Ancient Mariner didn't get away with his crime. And God is too good a Shepherd to allow His children to treat Him in such a way. He calls us back. Though unlike the spirits which attacked the Ancient Mariner, the Lord of All is gentle. God has a way of drawing back a Christian soul that is quite different. True, the Christian sheep which has so wandered from the fold within themselves may suffer for their actions. They might experience what we call the 'desert'. They might experience depression and feelings of confusion. They may feel alone.

   Yet Christ does not require penance from us, after our guilt has been realized and our repentance articulated in prayer, as was the case for the Mariner. The Mariner was doomed to wander the world, retelling his story and teaching others from his example. The Christian soul who exiles the Prince of Peace from their hearts will not be so doomed should they return to Him, for their doom and their penance was already played out upon the tortured body of their Savior.

   In the terms of the Rime, it would be as if the Albatross had willingly suffered all the doom of the Mariner before even the Mariner had killed the Albatross, and therefore the Mariner would have to suffer none of it.

   Does that sound unfair? Does it seem to be too good to be true? Well, there's a reason it's called the Good News.

  ~norton