Our Bounden Duty (Trinitarian article)

Fr. Tony’s Letter to the Trinitarians

May 2018

“Our Bounden Duty”

“It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord.” (Rite I Eucharistic Prayer, BCP 353)

“It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty…” (Rite II Eucharistic Prayer, BCP 361)

We tend to not talk about duty much anymore these days.  I wonder if this is because we have issues with authority: duty is seen as something imposed on us from above in a hierarchy, or by rules of some kind.  Or perhaps we want to avoid talking in a grudging way about what we ought to do, as if to suggest that if this thing weren’t my duty, I wouldn’t be doing it.  So we focus on the supposedly more authentic reasons: “a good and joyful thing” instead of “our bounden duty.” 

Those of us who serve or have served in oath-bound positions (like the military, the civil or the foreign service, the medical profession, or the clergy), understand, however, that duty is a powerful concept that motivates us to go beyond what we are natively inclined to do.  Indeed, all of us in our familial relations (parent, child, sibling, spouse) and close friendships also intuitively grasp that such roles impose in themselves obligations of at least minimal standards of behavior.   In an age when “the bully pulpit” of our top national leadership seems to produce an unending stream of grievance, complaint, blaming the other, or self-justification, it is hard to remember at times that even our citizenship and membership in a community imposes on us duties. 

It is important to note that “duty” actually serves as a minimal objective standard of what love and joyful acceptance of our creation should lead us to.  C.S. Lewis wrote in a private letter: 

“A perfect [person would] never act from sense of duty, [she or] he would always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love (of God and of other people)—like a crutch, which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times: but of course it’s idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs (our own loves, tastes, habits, etc.) can do the journey on their own!” (The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Vol. 3 [to Joan Lancaster on 7/18/1957].)

We are imperfect people, and we need duty on occasion just as we need crutches on occasion.  When our sense of love is not up to motivating us to do the right thing, or our brokenness makes us wonder even what the right thing is, then we should be honest enough to recognize our duty, and do it. 
Grace and peace. 
Fr. Tony+