“[The] message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
The world wields its power in the form of death, but the Cross offers the image of a power which is found instead in dying. For the Christian, death is not a sentence to be justly or mightily delivered upon one’s enemies, but is instead the worst that the world can offer in all its impotent rage. The world tries to humiliate, but the Cross utterly devours death. The world’s threats go nowhere, and those who cling to worldly power know only a life which is passing away.
***
Only a week ago, a world leader declared boastfully: “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace.” I have found myself tied in knots this week as I try to grapple with not only those words, but with the sentiment behind them. I cannot see peace as an onerous burden.
For the perishing powers of the world, peace is a condescension to be offered reluctantly and from a position of power. If there are no enemies left to destroy, then peace may follow. You risk only what vulnerability cannot destroy you; you certainly do not offer yourself up.
I am also too much formed in the ways of the world. There is a part of me that cannot surrender, no matter how much I might like to, to anyone or anything. I am full of petulant fight, and I respond in anticipation to problems that I fear I will be unable to bear. I do not trust that I will survive the challenges of peace, but neither do I understand a retreat to the futility of power.
***
We hold an image in our culture and in myth of a deal with the devil, in which we give up our souls in exchange for some kind of worldly power or knowledge. The soul is that part of us which nothing can destroy, while every worldly thing will pass away, and will inevitably be destroyed. To give up your soul for money is to let go of an eternity of wholeness in favour of a little gold that will not survive your death. The soul is directly held in the hand of the Creator, while the arrangement and allotment of material things is but a temporary ripple across the surface of Creation.
We know this tension and this bargain, and it is existential and spiritual and pervasive. If you pursue material fulfillment in life, there is less of you left to seek spiritual fulfillment. Of course we are anxious and insecure about our worldly existence, but it is a great loss to let this take from us the core of who we are. A life lived for material things is a missed opportunity, and in that sense a tragedy, and it is a tragedy in which we all share, to one degree or another.
A life which chokes out life is something else. A way of being which denigrates peace is not just unfortunate but blasphemous. The pursuit of violent power and the willful infliction of suffering on others is a rejection of the Spirit itself. Finding glee in killing and torture is nothing less than a deal with the devil, and a rejection of soul entirely in preference for a little temporary power.
The message of the Cross is that worldly power cannot actually destroy that which threatens it. The message of the Cross is that those who seek to humiliate the Holy will fail. The message of the Cross is this foolish thing that the perishing cannot understand: that peace is not weakness, that love cannot be bought, and that other human beings are not obstacles to be crushed.
It is of eternal consequence to trade away our soul for the illusion of security and control.
***
It feels good, sometimes, to surge with rage. It’s exciting to watch distant bombs be dropped. There is a thrill to be had in conquest and a violent victory. How glorious it is to be on the side of righteousness, and to prove stronger than one’s enemies; but only for a little while.
The waves of anticipation and manic relief with time grow empty, especially if you watch people you love become broken in the process, or simply never return home. There may be such a thing as a just war, maybe, but whatever glory there is is in self-sacrifice and noble loss, not victory.
Nobody should be eager or excited to kill someone else, because such excitement inevitably comes at the cost of one’s soul. The message of the Cross is that death will not destroy you, but that viewing yourself in terms of your capacity to kill might just. Those who wield the Cross are much further from the reality of eternal things than those who die upon it. Salvation is found not in victory but in humanity. It is not ours to seek either martyrdom or conquest, but to be able to be at one with one another and with God. It is the highest calling of the human person to be at peace, and it is the greatest denigration of both the human and divine to relish the opportunity to break a peace instead.
The Cross calls us to be so brave and bold as to let ourselves think of peace even in the face of death. We do not need to fight against the powers of this world on their own terms, because they are already destroying themselves, and they have already lost. The calling is instead to save one another, to protect one another, and to love one another, even in the face of death.
***
May you be so foolish as to embrace the peace that is your birthright, and the love that is God’s power. May you see the futility of those who are perishing, and work to love them all the same. May you not fear death, nor those who would wield it, and fulfill in your own life the good things for which you have been made.