5th April 2020
Krisis
We now live in a world different from the world we still used to live in just a couple of weeks ago, do we? Is that true or false? Is this a new reality?
But we will return to our old ways of life whenever this little “break“ is over, people say, think, hope. But is it a break? Or a crisis? What‘s the difference?
A break is something we schedule. Something we plan. Something we control. Something we determine in its beginning and its end. “Crisis“ is a Greek word: “krinein“ means “to decide“, and “krisis“ therefore means “decision“. A break is not a moment, a time of decision. We decide to take a break from something, but a break does not force us to make decisions. But with a crisis comes a decision, if we take the etymological roots of this word seriously.
But once we are in the realm of decisions, it is clear that we also enter into the sphere of the consequences of decisions – short-term and long-term consequences. And from there emerges a different life, world, reality. Not a copy of the old one – before the crisis.
Everyone who has ever lived through a personal crisis in his life knows this: after the crisis you are a different person and you live a different life than before. A crisis is a kind of purgatory – some sort of crucible. It purges away the old.
If we think of a time as the present one as an unplanned, unscheduled and uncontrollable “break“, we think of it as a hostile intruder into our supposedly well-ordered lives, messing up our intentions and plans and established habits. If we understand it as a crisis and as a chastisement, a trial with a purpose, it may become our friend: a friend telling the truth, a sincere friend, a friend giving good advice. But what is this crisis about? What is this friend telling us? What‘s the purpose of it? What decisions do we have to make? How does one live in times like these?
“Wake up, O sleeper! Rise from the dead, and Messiah will shine on you. So pay close attention to how you walk – not as unwise people but as wise. Make the most of your time because the days are evil. For this reason do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord‘s will is.“
Ephesians 5: 14-17
Escapism
We can turn our eyes to the spring flowers, the blue skies, and the sun still shining down on us, get ourselves the first ice-cream of the year, and pretend that everything is fine. Maybe this is the crisis of everyone who has fallen sick in this pandemic, maybe this is the crisis of the medical system, maybe this is the crisis of the political system. But it‘s not our crisis. We still enjoy our time, and we look the other way and close our ears to it all.
About two weeks ago I published a post entitled “The art of limiting our digital lives“ which I had written over the course of several weeks. Yet after a couple of days I took it down because I felt that some of the things said therein need to be put into a much bigger context, more encompassing than the context of digital media usage. In this article, I wrote that to truly live in this one real world means to never live in the virtual world our modern mass media create. Concerning the usage of social media I stated: The main thing facebook and similar services provide us with is this: numbing. Numbing our uncomfortable, painful sense of dis-connectedness and loneliness. They are “pacifiers“ for adults… But do real adults need “pacifiers“? (…) neither normal times nor times of crisis should be mastered with the help of means of numbing ourselves. Everyone of us has got what it takes and is grown-up enough to live without them. Eventually I closed with the following thoughts: The important relationships, the real ones, the deep ties are the ones that survive every circumstance and every crisis in life. And they shine more brightly in darker days, setting themselves apart from all those thousand “contacts“ and “connections“ that are not real friendship. (…) But only if we do not numb ourselves… (…) And live with periods of non-communication, of silence. That is when we start to really think of others and miss people. (…) What if it’s worth living an analog, real, mundane life instead of a digital life with all those little (fake) dopamin hits? Without rediscovering analog life, it is impossible to limit our digital lives, to downgrade our digital devices to mere tools again instead of using them as “entertaining“ machines ready to dispel all our boredom, loneliness, feelings of isolation or nervousness by clicking and swiping. So how could a life off-track and off-beat, emerging from a human rhythm instead of being built by digital algorithms, look like? What we need now and what our souls are really longing for is more reality, not more virtuality.
So here‘s a few nuggets to clarify, to start providing a bigger context: We can live in all sorts of virtual and distorted worlds, not just the one the media create. We can numb ourselves with all sorts of things, not just with facebook. There are always a thousand roads of escapism from reality available to us – with or without the help of digital media.
And the only life that is a really human life – off-track and off the beat of the drums of this present age – is a life of love.
“But understand this, that in the last days hard times will come – for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, hardhearted, unforgiving, backbiting, without self-control, brutal, hating what is good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to an outward form of godliness but denying its power.“
2 Timothy 3: 1-6
Palm Sunday
“Dear brothers and sisters, what can we do in comparison with God, who served us even to the point of being betrayed and abandoned? We can refuse to betray him for whom we were created, and not abandon what really matters in our lives. We were put in this world to love him and our neighbours. Everything else passes away, only this remains. The tragedy we are experiencing summons us to take seriously the things that are serious, and not to be caught up in those that matter less; to rediscover that life is of no use if not used to serve others. For life is measured by love. So, in these holy days, in our homes, let us stand before the Crucified One, the fullest measure of God’s love for us, and before the God who serves us to the point of giving his life, and let us ask for the grace to live in order to serve. May we reach out to those who are suffering and those most in need. May we not be concerned about what we lack, but what good we can do for others.
His Holiness Pope Francis, Homily for Palm Sunday, 5th April 2020
Behold my servant, whom I uphold. The Father, who sustained Jesus in his Passion also supports us in our efforts to serve. Loving, praying, forgiving, caring for others, in the family and in society: all this can certainly be difficult. It can feel like a via crucis. But the path of service is the victorious and lifegiving path by which we were saved. I would like to say this especially to young people, on this Day which has been dedicated to them for thirty-five years now. Dear friends, look at the real heroes who come to light in these days: they are not famous, rich and successful people; rather, they are those who are giving themselves in order to serve others. Feel called yourselves to put your lives on the line. Do not be afraid to devote your life to God and to others; it pays! For life is a gift we receive only when we give ourselves away, and our deepest joy comes from saying yes to love, without ifs and buts. As Jesus did for us.“
It is Palm Sunday. It is the week of the Lord‘s Passion now. And so there is one crucial decision we need to make in the midst of this present crisis: to look to Christ the Crucified and Risen One. And He alone, who did not escape the way of the cross set before him, is the remedy against each and every temptation toward escapism. He alone is the Peace “which surpasses all understanding“ (Philippians 4: 7) – beyond all false and superficial pacifiers.
I read in the gospel of Mark today. My reading session began with the story of the blind man Bartimaeus who cried out “Ben-David, have mercy on me!“, the story right before the one about Christ‘s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, coming down from the Mount of Olives. I read up until I arrived at the chapters that tell the events of Holy Thursday and the following days. It’s the pathway from “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord“ to “Crucify him!“ – the pathway of Holy Week. Somewhere in the middle we find these passages:
“One of the Torah scholars came and heard them debating. Seeing that Yeshua had answered them well, he asked Him, ‘Which commandment is first of all?‘ Yeshua answered, ‘The first is, ‘Shema Yisrael, ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI echad. Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One. And you shall love ADONAI your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.‘ There is no other commandment greater than these.‘ – ‘Well said, Teacher,‘ the Torah scholar said to Him. ‘You have spoken the truth, that He is echad, and besides Him there is no other! And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love the neighbor as oneself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.‘ When Yeshua saw that he had answered wisely, He said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.‘ And no one dared any longer to question Him.“
Mark 12: 28-34
Loving God and neighbor are the highest commandments, nothing is “greater than these“, and it is “much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices“. Does it not speak to us right now? Now that we are bereft of assisting at Holy Masses? We are thrown back to the raw essence of it all: love.
But why is the wise Torah scholar only “not far from the kingdom of God“? Why is he not yet “incorporated“ into the kingdom of God? Unlike the blind man Bartimaeus, who after regaining his sight “began following Yeshua down the road“ (Mark 10: 52), the Torah scholar cannot see that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of David. At least at this point, in this encounter not yet. He perceives Jesus as a fellow Torah scholar, not as the Son of God he is called to love and adore – with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his strength. And Jesus has not laid down His life yet to redeem mankind from their sins with His most precious blood. Jesus has not been raised by the Father yet, and has not ascended to His right hand yet. If the wise Torah scholar witnesses these things done for our salvation or gets knowledge of them from hearsay later on, and then in his heart believes that Jesus is Lord, the Messiah sent by the Father, gets baptized into Him, and supremely loves Him, ADONAI “in the flesh“, the Holy One of Israel who tabernacled among us, keeping His commandments – then he finally lives, and walks, and breathes in the kingdom of God. In other words: If he does the very things he thinks and says are a man‘s God-given calling to do to the fullest measure, in truth – he will enter into the bliss of the kingdom.
“God saved us by serving us. We often think we are the ones who serve God. No, he is the one who freely chose to serve us, for he loved us first. It is difficult to love and not be loved in return. And it is even more difficult to serve if we do not let ourselves be served by God.“
His Holiness Pope Francis, Homily for Palm Sunday, 5th April 2020
This is the very thing that the wise Torah scholar is missing. He knows that love is “much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices“, but he does not know – at least not yet – the sacrifice of Christ, the God who saves him by loving him first, by serving him. But to know Yeshua – to know God‘s “salvation to the end of the earth“ (Isaiah 49: 6) – is crucial, is the way out. It is the way through every crisis and every crucible, and it is the way out of every form of escapism. We can all know the things the wise Torah scholar knows – but somehow skip around doing them just like he is most likely tempted to. We can easily widen the gap between knowing and doing into an insurmountable abyss. Only knowing Jesus Christ and knowing what He did for us can turn this around and make us “devote our lives to God and to others“ for real.
Each and every year we are reintroduced into the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus Christ during Holy Week – so that each and every year we may once again regain our sight like the blind man Bartimaeus and may follow Yeshua, our salvation, anew.
The voice of the Friend
The measure of all reality is the Truth, and the Truth is Jesus Christ.
We now live in a world different from the world we still lived in just a couple of weeks ago, do we? Is that true or false? Is this a new reality?
The reality of our lives is ever new, insofar as our hearts are converted to the Truth, to Jesus Christ again and again.
“For we are His workmanship – created in Messiah Yeshua for good deeds, which God prepared beforehand so we might walk in them.“
Ephesians 5: 10
“I pray that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to grasp with all the kedoshim what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Messiah which surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled up with all the fullness of God.“
Ephesians 3: 17-19
“Therefore be imitators of God, as dearly loved children; and walk in love, just as Messiah also loved us and gave Himself up for us as an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma.“
Ephesians 5: 1-2
“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you might be blameless and innocent, children of God in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. Among them you shine as lights in the world“
Philippians 2: 14-15
“Rejoice always, pray constantly, in everything give thanks; for this is God‘s will for you in Messiah Yeshua.“
1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18
But what is this crisis about? What is this friend telling us? What‘s the purpose of it? What decisions do we have to make? How does one live in times like these?
What is our greatest friend and our Master telling us about the purpose of it all? Will we ever hear His voice again?
“Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me. (…) I am the way, the truth, and the life! No one comes to the Father except through Me. (…) I will not abandon you as orphans; I will come to you. In a little while, the world will no longer behold Me, but you will behold Me. (…) Shalom I leave you, My shalom I give to you; but not as the world gives! Do not let your heart be troubled or afraid. (…) Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. The branch cannot itself produce fruit, unless it abides on the vine. Likewise, you cannot produce fruit unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me, you can do nothing. (…) Abide in My love! (…) These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be full. (…) You did not choose me, but I chose you. I selected you so that you would go and produce fruit, and your fruit would remain.“
John 14: 1 – 15: 16
“When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come. But when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, because of the joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you!“
John 16: 21-22
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have shalom. In the world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world!“
John 16: 33