Mission Monthly – March 2001
“Of all the accusations against Christians, the most terrible one was uttered by Nietzsche when he said that Christians had no joy.”
Fr. Alexander Schmemann
As I sit down to write this I am tired and not very eager to work. My lack of enthusiasm is compounded by a secret wish to be back at White Sands beach on a hot August afternoon with no responsibility, no phone calls, no appointments! This example (one of many) exemplifies the inner struggle of man with God’s command to love Him with all our being, where we are and above all things. It is the struggle to be aware of His eternity in the midst of our day to day, tug-o-war activities. It is the struggle to simply be thankful. But wait, I’m working 60-70 hours a week, it’s tax time again and I really need a good nights sleep! Sound familiar?
I know these thoughts are scattered (a reflection of “one of those days”) but I do have a point. Life has many struggles. As Christians we know and accept this to be a characteristic of fallen creation, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” (Gen. 3:19). Man struggles to believe in (let alone love) God Who created heaven and earth, and man struggles with his mortality, the ultimate consequence of the fall. Everything else, the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the happiness and the sadness, the success and the failure, falls somewhere in between and we deal with it daily, hourly and even moment to moment.
As Christians we should understand this clearly and completely. Yes, if it was not for the fall of Adam creation would be completely different, as would the role of the Christ. What would the Incarnation have meant to a creation that had not fallen? Most importantly we would not have crucified the Christ! Creation is fallen, however, and we did crucify Christ. But in His death Christ has “trampled down” our mortal enemy and we proclaim “Christ is risen!” and receive His victory of life over death, of love over evil, of virtue over vice.
If only the cynical philosopher Nietzsche could have seen us on Pascha, or at the baptism or marriage of our children, then he’d know our joy! Did he expect us to be happy all the time? Didn’t he know that we have responsibilities to take care of just like everybody else?
Beloved, we are not like everybody else! If I bear the name of Christ I am not like everybody else! As Christians we have been set apart for a purpose, to die with Him that we might live with Him! It is to joyfully stand against the corruption of this world, the corruption of materialism, immorality, contention, power and vanity. It is to stand up against the fragmentation and destruction of the human being which these corruptions perpetrate on the beautiful nature God has given to mankind. Sadly, Christians often fall prey to the Devil’s clever half-truths saying that we can virtually do what we want, have what we want, be what we want and still have God. This unfortunately can be idolatrous and a strong cause of a joyless Christianity, one which substitutes the idols of this world for the True God (and we are crushed beneath their weight!). Joyless Christianity is self-centered. It caters to our desire for pleasure, and in the enslavement of the flesh to material and temporal things we lose our ability to suffer and die with Christ and to ourselves. Joyless Christianity is resentful. It devours our ability to actually know what is truly important in this life and in the spirit of “entitlement” we become malcontent with the life we’ve been given, often desiring a life other than what we have.
Suddenly it seems I’m not so tired and unenthusiastic! Great Lent is upon us with its opportunity to once again choose the life and joy found only in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Indeed we are reflections of the choices we make. What accusation will the cynic make of me?