world, flesh & devil

   Jesus warns us that he comes to bring a sword -- not the sword of war, but the sword which divides us from our false selves. By declaring that members of families would be against each other, he idnicates how far he is from something called 'family values': such values are actually the enemy of those who desire to follow Christ. When a cleric or pastor or preacher declares himself in favor of 'family values,' he shows how little he grasps the gospel. The entire Old Testament demonstrates the division of father against son, brother against brother: the Church is to be God's family, one of self-denial rather than of self-advancement, of renunciation rather than of exercise of force, of the Holy One who does not baptize nations but holds those from all nations in a baptism which repels all local regencies & powers.

   While the hierarchy has always been fond of Crusades of various types, the centrifuge of history distills the power lust from the desire to undo the works of the flesh in one's self, regardless of what the surrounding society may or may not sanction. The attempt to coerce the state back into conformity to decrees of the Church is an attempt to mix what the Spirit has separated: human beings no longer trust the state as such, which is a sign of how deeply Christ & his crucifixion at the hands of the state & clerical authority have been ingrained in the global society; but we still long, not to share in his suffering & crucifixion, but to treat earth as if it were already, or potentially, Heaven. But the apocapyptic insanity that afflicts many of those who profess Christ currently -- "Armageddon, huzzah!" -- is equally alien to the gospel & the vision of the world's consummation given to St. John. Our Lord was sorrowful unto death -- he didn't want to drink the chalice, but accepted it because it was the Father's will, and therefore his own true will. Whenever the chalice comes to us to drink, we must drink it as well, if it's the Father's will -- but the frenzy of labelling Antichrists, especially the folly & brutal ignorance of the white-rightwing's slanders, transgresses the commandment & is a form of idolatry, implying that the reverse political figure represents Christ's Kingdom. Apocalyptism is thinly disguised love of the world, not joy at the prospect of Christ's second coming.

   The world, flesh & devil are ingrained in our most common thoughts & desires: the flesh lusts against the spirit & the spirit (or Spirit) against the flesh, and we should be wary of any service to the flesh, as a temptation away from sharing in the Cross & being with Christ. If we do this joylessly, we demonstrate that we don't do it from love. When we fast, we must not do it as the hypocrites do, making a show of it: if we pray on street corners, or on television, or any place to demonstrate how faithful we are, we prove that we are faithless & loveless: we believe ourselves to be some sort of prophets or saints or exemplars, when we need to imitate the tax-gatherer beating his breast & asking for mercy.