....faith and life....life and faces

Man's greatness and misery

The devil

A  high  ranking  SS-officer  and  general of the "Waffen-SS", Karl Wolff, wrote in a letter in August 1942: "I have noted with particular joy in your communication that now, for the last two weeks, a train with 15000 members of the Chosen People is going to Treblinka every day ..." (a concentration camp in the Third Reich).

Is a human being really capable of such evil? By whom and through what is he driven to it? Thinking of the crimes committed in those concentration camps, do we not  have  the  impression  that  this type of malice is no longer human,   that  there  is a  stronger  spiritual  power behind it, something superhuman, diabolical?

The Holy Scriptures call this spiritual power which negates the will of God, the devil. They call him "liar from the beginning", "diabolus", meaning the "confuser", who puts all values upside-down and makes sin appear desirable.  But still, this is no excuse for human beings, as only by their own consent does evil gain the upper hand, resulting in sin. How should we imagine the devil? The Scriptures say almost nothing about this. They only want to show the reality and power of this diabolic might. However, the many popular and often very naive ideas about the devil are not confirmed by the Scriptures.

...and all the suffering

Man's freedom includes risk. But without this risk, man would be no more  than  a  tool,  a  puppet, in the hands of God, with no will of his own. The greatness  of man can also show itself in the ability to say NO to the will of God,  in  sin.  We can agree with the Bible, which finds the source of so much suffering  in the world  within man himself.  We also see deep human experience documented in the Scriptures when they report about demonic powers misleading man  to  do  evil  which  appears to be beyond human capability.

But is this sufficient  to  explain all the suffering in the world? What about suffering  which has no obvious connection with sin? Suffering which overwhelms man unexpectedly and through no fault of his own, senseless pain, catastrophes, earth tremors, accidents, suffering of the innocent, terminal illness, sudden death. Who is responsible for all this? Would no world at all not be better than this one? What is God's opinion?

The question of suffering remains enigmatic and challenging for both, believers and atheists. Many say "Let us act, let us drive back suffering wherever we can. This is more profitable than thinking about it and looking for explanations". This is certainly true. This corresponds with the will of God:  Anyone who alleviates suffering acts on His behalf. But has this answered the question? What does Christianity say about undeserved suffering?

Man's greatness and misery 

The biblical reports

Misunderstanding  of  Original  Sin  has  its  roots  in  the  different interpretations  of  the story about the fall of humanity, which cannot be done literally as in the past. This is the story of humanity ("Adam" simply means "man" and is not to be understood as name of a particular person), which, right from the beginning,  went the wrong way, thwarting God's will and plan. Since then, all people have entered  the  world  marked  by a NO to God.  Through sin at the beginning, man lives within the domain of sin. The failure of Adam, the human being, is not only past but present, as right up to our day every human being says NO to God again and again, and in doing so, stands by the first man and his sin, alienating himself personally from God and participating personally in the guilt for this world's fatal sin-entanglement.

Only the fact that there was sin from the beginning is dogma. Not all the details of the story should be understood literally. The same applies to the question whether all people are descended from a single pair of humans (monogenism), or several first parents (polygenism). The biblical report about creation leaves this question open and it has nothing to do with the religious statement.

Today, the world has become "smaller" for us. We know that a dictator in one corner of the world can involve half the world in a terrible war. But even a single father of a family who leaves his family, can fatally switch the future direction of generations. We know that with the birth of every human being, decisions are made that affect his entire life: belonging to a certain people, a certain class or society , this or that religion, etc. The people of Israel felt very strongly that they were all in the same boat, especially as far as man's sinfulness is concerned.

Your adversary,  the devil - (1 Peter 5,8)

If through sin man hurts himself so much, the question arises: why does man voluntarily act so foolishly? We cannot really understand this. Man always  strives only for something that seems good to him, that seems to have a value. So, sin must also offer itself to him under the guise of something good and worthwhile, otherwise nobody would decide to pursue it. The "forbidden fruit" in paradise is a good example of this. It was "especially beautiful".   A thief also thinks that the possession of other people's property means enrichment and happiness  for  him.  Every  person who lies wants to avoid punishment or gain respect from others. This is the way to explain why man can make the decision to sin and prefer sin to God's friendship. However, every time he does this his experience is the same: he finds he was mistaken and in  the end sin does not pay. But he is torn  between his desire and his obligation. Saint Paul complained: "I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do." (Romans 7,19). What is it that prevents him from doing good? Why does man end up doing evil which, basically, he does not want?    

Man's greatness and misery

Sin - consciousness

keeps the world from becoming inhuman. This is why we maintain that an alert sin-consciousness allows us to live together in a more harmonious, human way. We cannot make a distinction between our failures before God and our fellow-man. When we are guilty toward men, we also turn away from God. And this alienation continues in the relationship between man and his environment. Every sin makes it worse. Looking at the pictures of sites bombed down during war, we may begin to see these connections.
 

Estrangement between God and man, man and fellowman, man and environment is the  consequence of sin.  And  this shows that by turning away from God, we  strike not at Him (this is impossible anyway), but at ourselves. We completely lose the sense of our destiny. Uncertainty, desperation, suffering, illness and death are signs of this. Everybody knows examples of how disorder and sin also destroy a man physically (drinking and drugs, slandering, etc.) It is not God who punishes sin, but sin punishes itself.
 

All of us experience how each sin increases the vulnerability to further sin. Once we are weakened, another sin does not seem to be so evil. And a chain reaction of further evils follows. And in the end there is often despair and then the question: Is there no God or does He simply not care about this tormented humanity? Man sins, but he blames God.

Original sin

On the other hand, we say, and rightly so, that man cannot be made the scapegoat for everything. Is there not much injustice and suffering in this world that cannot be blamed on individual persons? I cannot always be said to be personally guilty for it.

The Bible puts it this way: sin is not only sin as the deed of a single man, but also as the given situation of the human existence from the beginning. Every person is born into a world marked by sin. Before he himself is able to do  anything  unjust,  he  is  "stamped" by "original sin", a term that is not understood by many people. What do I have to do with the sin of Adam? Why should I suffer in consequence?

Normally, sin is understood as a personal deed, but this is exactly what "original sin" is not. This is why the Church teaches that no man will be lost on account of original sin alone, since it is a condition that deprives us of something that we should have according to the will of God: active friendship with God. 

Man's greatness and misery

Sin - rejection of the love of God

Egoism means putting things upside-down. God and humanity are there for each other, but man separates from God and makes himself the norm of all order. As a consequence, the sources of his life dry up.

But who still thinks about "sin" today? What is it really? Have we not lost the sense of sin? In fact, we know the various forms and the consequences of sin today as well as Paul did, 2000 years ago: people dominated by sin are filled with "all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless." (Romans 1,29-31). But we are no longer used to recognizing these experiences as sin and calling them such.

The "shades" of sin

Naturally, we are not conscious every time we sin that we have offended against the will of God. Often, we realize only later that we are guilty. So, sin is not immediately sin. There are degrees of sin, depending on how conscious and premeditated the NO to the will of God was. God judges us according to our attitude, our intention, how closely our  action conforms to our conscience. What the action was is not decisive in itself. It may be that someone commits a sinful action without being guilty, since he or she does not see nor want its sinfulness.

Nobody is without sin

Everybody  experiences  failure,  neglect or omission.  We are always less than what we could be and, according to God's plan, should be. "If we say we have no sin,  we deceive ourselves,  and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (John 1,8).

Consequences of sin

When a sin has been committed, it is not finished.  The condition of guilt exists. This is true of inter human relationships, where lies are followed by hatred, egoism and alienation. In the same way a (serious) sin leads to alienation from God and breaks the bonds of love between God and man.

There is a secret craze of innocence spreading in our society. Failure and guilt,  if any,  is always found with other people only, with the past, nature, heredity and the environment. We like to credit our own account with the success of our actions. But if there are negative consequences, we deny our responsibility and we always find new excuses and alibis for our mistakes and  faults. These defense  mechanisms even enter our interpersonal relationships. Our attitude toward life and all our planning ceases to be directed by a feeling of being responsible for each other and calculations of our own profit prevail. 

Man's greatness and misery

God and free man

Our affection and respect for each other often stop as soon as  the other says NO where we say YES. We want too quickly to remodel the other person according to our norms. With God, things are  different. He takes us seriously as we are. He lets us keep our freedom and our will , even if we say NO to Him. God gave man his free will  as a gift. And for this reason, He respects it more than anyone. He does not amend His decisions like an annoyed or disappointed human person.

 We will again and again interpret God's respect for the freedom of His creatures as God's weakness. "God is good, He is love itself and won't take it that seriously if we misbehave. We will all get to heaven!" Love cannot defend itself against such misunderstandings and wrong interpretations, not even divine love.

God's love for us cannot be extinguished,  even if we take advantage of it  by doing evil. But does this mean that our actions have no consequences? God is faithful, but He is also just. He takes our free decisions seriously, including saying NO to His love. For this reason in particular, consequences  apply to man. It is not God who turns away when we sin. It is the other way around:  people who sin turn away from God. And God does not stop them. He lets them go. He does not impose Himself if people want to go their own way. In this case, the NO to God remains for time and eternity. But if man recognizes that his decision was wrong, he may change it, "return to God" as the Bible puts it. God waits for this to happen.

He does not want good to be done under  pressure  and force; it is supposed  to be man's own deed. Our dignity lies in this freedom. We bear the weight, the responsibility for our free action. We not only reap the fruits of our good deeds, but are also responsible for misusing our freedom to do evil.

Humanity in sin and guilt

Nobody likes to be called to account for his actions. We would prefer not to be responsible to God or to other people. We would like to be "totally free". The good that God wants often seems to be diametrically opposed to what we really want to do. We quickly decide "freely" against the will of God. This NO to the will of God, the main source of evil in this world, is called "sin" in the Bible.

We have to recognize the word "sin" in its entire awful reality; otherwise everything that follows will remain incomprehensible. There is really only a single sin: rejection of God's love. For this reason the Old Testament also calls it "faithlessness", breach of the covenant with God. With this, people proclaim that they are self-sufficient, that they do not need God. Egoism destroys the longing for God.
 

Man's greatness and misery

Psalm 8, 4

In each one of us, God sees a spark of His own being and He loves us even when we turn away from Him. "But God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners.." (Romans 5,8)The wonderful way in which the Bible describes the essence of man cannot be surpassed. We human beings have all the reasons to consider ourselves fortunate, as does the psalmist in the Old Testament:

"What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him little less than God, You crown him with glory and honor. You have given him domination over the works of Your hands, You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the path of the sea. ... O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!"

Man's freedom - gift and risk

There are times where we are able to embrace "God and the world". We feel healthy, loved and happy. It is nice to be on earth. For all this the believer thanks God, his creator. The preceding psalm of praise may also have come into being during happy times. Man is gifted with the ability to see only the good things around him at times. If he also always had to look at life's negative sides, he would never be able to really take delight in the world and himself. But periods of suffering and sorrow, anger and disappointment, come back just the same.

On August 4, 1941, Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest, was put to death in  the  Auschwitz  concentration camp. Originally, a Polish father of a family was supposed to die. Kolbe offered to take his place and the camp administration  agreed.  The  father of the family  returned home.

Was this act not Father Kolbe's own, free decision?  Everybody  knows that He did not have to do it. Even if he felt urged to take this action by Jesus Christ's message of love, the fact remains that he did it voluntarily. The love of Christ enabled him to become free for his fellow man, who needed his action. Freedom and responsibility belong together. Responsibility does not suspend freedom, it marks off its limits.

Freedom  that is misunderstood or misused can lead to total dependency. We are free to get  addicted  to  alcohol and many become dependent on it. But we also can become addicted to other human beings and ideologies. Or, misusing our freedom, we may become egoists and tyrants who do not care for anybody else. Faithfulness and love are betrayed and disappointed. The great gift of freedom presents, at the same time, risk and danger for man.
 

Man's greatness and misery

God's YES to man

In Jesus Christ, God has come to us human beings. God, who cannot be seen and comprehended, appeared in this world as a human being, lived and acted as a man and spoke from man to man. He came into a sick world to bring salvation and  initiate the final perfection of humankind and the world. 

But if we look around  this world, we are disappointed. There is so much wrong and very little can be detected of the closeness between God and man. Has nothing been improved by God's coming into this world? Or has man thrown away the advantage he gained through Jesus? Where is the divinity within people and the world? There is a rupture that can drive one to despair, when we look at man and this world.

How can  God  be the creator of such a defective world, the Father of such imperfect children?  Could  He not have done better? Why did God create a world that needed redemption through Jesus Christ?  Where is the omnipotent, just and merciful God? How can one believe that God loves man?

According to the Holy Scriptures "everything that God had made was very good" (Genesis 1,31)! This "very good" refers especially to the creation of man. Man's dignity, greatness and destiny lie in his creation through God.
 

Man ... image of God

"Then God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1,26). God created man, gave him His blessings and put him in charge of the rest of His creation.

The image of God, the likeness of God: as the moon receives the light from the sun and reflects it, so man receives life from God and is allowed to pass it on. Man's will is destined for co-determination in God's creation, to plan, invent and create, but also to improve, complete and preserve according to the best of his ability.

As an image of God, man is also part of the mystery of God.  The breath of divinity, of eternity, is within him (see Gen 2, 7). This is why, scientifically, he cannot be defined fully. This gives the ultimate justification for the saying: "The dignity of man is inviolable". "God keeps man as the apple of His eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young. (Dtn 32,10...)
 

God with us

Trinity

And the Spirit of God? The understanding of the Old Testament already indicated  that the Spirit of God is nothing other than God's Spirit, but still not exactly identical with Him. And Jesus refers to this. The Spirit promised by Jesus to His disciples is not an impersonal power: He is active within and for man.  He sanctifies us,  introduces us to the truth, helps and consoles us. He is the Spirit of God and also the Spirit of Christ. Nowhere in the Scriptures or the dogma of the Church is the Holy Spirit simply identified with the Father or the resurrected Lord. But neither can He  be separated from them.

For this reason,  at the incarnation of Jesus, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are already mentioned separately. Later, during the baptism in the Jordan River, this happens again (Mt 3,13-17). After His resurrection, Jesus again summarizes   all three names of God: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28,18). In the letters of the Apostles, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are also mentioned with equal reverence and love. Over the centuries, the Church has adhered to this biblical model and concludes the official prayers with the words: through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord and God, who lives with You in unity with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.

Maybe now you feel like putting this letter aside and saying: "I don't get all this: one and equal but still different, not identical, not exactly  interchangeable ..." But does it make sense to live for a God who can be entirely comprehended with our human intellect? The first Christians and disciples of Jesus did not have this theological-philosophical problem. They were convinced: there is only one God. He is God the Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This God is present in Jesus of Nazareth. His word is the word of God. His will is the will of my creator.  They  believed  this  even  when  they were in doubt: "Lord, help my unbelief!" (Mark 9,24).

We come closer to the value of this mystery for our life, if we presume God to be a loving God, to be  love itself  (1 John 4,8.10) He is not the lonely Allah; not the top monarch. He is beyond singular and plural. Although one, there is community within Him. God shows Himself to us as a vital, creative God. Within Him is relationship and encounter, knowing and loving, turning toward the other and receiving. His love also shows itself in His relationship with man. He "goes out of Himself" to meet us and be close to us.  Only  if  we  look  at  God,  do we begin to understand why there is love, affection, fondness, relationships and community among human beings in this world: God Himself has poured  out His  being over this world and all of creation breathes His Spirit.   

                                                                                God with us

The gift of grace

is the same as light for a plant. We feel reborn and live accordingly. This is why the Scriptures call what Jesus Christ brought us a "new birth", a "new creation". Grace is not "something" within us, an expensive accessory. Grace is really nothing other than the love of God to us and the Spirit of God Himself within us.

The Scriptures use always new pictures and images to show that God is active within us in this way: We are children of God (1 John 3,1); God "dwells" within us as in a temple. (1 Cor 3,16; Tim 1,14). Can anybody seriously say that belief in this God alienates man from himself? According to Christian belief, man was created "in the image of God". Only if man finds God, will he be able to find himself. Naturally, this intense and unsurpassable closeness of God is only an offer. We can "give God notice". God is not a demon and He does not occupy the house. God's presence within man is not static. It is up to us to intensify it or to let it waste away.

We have now reached the point when we need to talk about the greatest mystery of the Christian faith: the triune God. Jews and Moslems take offense at this. They fear that it jeopardizes faith in the one and only God. At the Rock-Mosque in Jerusalem we find this sentence: "Allah is one, there is no son".

Christians have never, not even for a moment, dropped the faith in one God. God is one only God. The basic commandment of the Old Testament was always valid: I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other Gods besides me.

But during the course of history, the faithful experienced more and more that this God is not "simple".

After having read all this, you may now have some idea of how multifarious the reality of God is. That God is triune, is no speculation of man. Who could ever have the idea to imagine God like this! But God has revealed Himself exactly in this way. Christians don't believe that God used Jesus as a mask and disguised Himself in Jesus' human form: Jesus IS God. It is Christian conviction that the Holy Spirit is God Himself, not only a force emanating from Him.

God has shown us: This is the way I am. It is not His problem how we reconcile this with the laws of our intelligence and logic. This question has puzzled us ever since and theologians have pondered it for 2000 years, with no end in sight. Even if the terms "Trinity" or "triune God" are not mentioned in the Scriptures, the question has been referred to several times in the Bible. Although Jesus was really and entirely a human being, He knows that He is one with "His Father" in a unique way. (John 5,20,26; 8,58;Matthew 11,27; 26.63...) This is why His contemporaries reproached Jesus that He put Himself in the place of God!