Caesar was neither impractical nor unreasonable -- he was political; Christ was neither practical nor reasonable -- He was crucified; we are neither political nor crucified -- we are Caesar Christians.
That is to say we are people of moderation, lukewarm, assimilated by the culture and empire; tainted with the values, myths and religion of the nation-state. We beg the question of hard political action using Christianity as an excuse. We beg the question of hard Gospel action using political reality as our excuse. We stand with neither Caesar nor Christ, yet we praise and patronize them both. Our children beg for bread and with a smile, under the guise of love, we hand them a stone and a snake. Our destiny has been foretold: “I will vomit you from my mouth.”
I use the word Contemplative to best describe the Gospel person; I use the word Idolatrous to best describe the Caesar person, or child of the world. The two are in direct collision--the values of the Gospel cannot be assimilated or co-exist with the values of the world. They are in mortal opposition and combat. The teachings of Christ engender community, unity, and life; the teachings of the world formalize isolation, disharmony, and death. This is not new, it has always been true. Only our awareness of the degree of our worldly complicity and compromise is changing. Security, comfort, and respectability are unavailable to followers of Christ; they belong to the world’s children--Caesar’s people. Our heritage is more: abandonment, insecurity, and exile. The wilderness of this world is our home.
After defining the terms I am using, allow me to proceed as follows. My thesis will be this: the process of worldly crucifixion is the process of Gospel liberation; or to reverse: the process of worldly deification is the process of Gospel death. The process of Gospel liberation demands that we stand in communion with the trampled bodies, that our view of reality is on a metaphysical/contemplative/unifying level and that we seek first the Kingdom. The process of worldly deification demands that we compete and win; that we disassociate our selves from the weak and broken; that we look no deeper than appearances and veneers, and that we seek first survival -- survival at all costs.
Contemplatives are those who perceive in depth the connection and inner-connections of life and the human family, who reject and resist the appearances and veneers. They are unsatisfied with the outer beauty of the marbled mausoleum, but probe the inner death and decay which the structure contains. Contemplatives live on their own terms, rather than vicariously on the popular wisdom and consensus of the day. They know well that nation-states, governments, and authoritarian structures are formalized death and incarnational evil. Contemplatives will be rejected, abused, opposed, and when they become too prominent they will be crucified. That is the very meaning of the cross, the breaking point between holiness and idolatry.
The idolatrous are those who, in Merton’s words, give “metaphysical significance to that which is hollow.” They elevate property, ideologies, governments and political personalities to a sacramental level; sacralize privilege, security, illegitimate power and affluence; use, discard, and waste human life for personal advantage. For trinkets and clichés they sell their souls. They kneel before criminals and are rewarded with trash. The idolatrous are respected and admired by the world and of them the world will say: they were successful and happy. The idolatrous are the very ones who will break the contemplative on the world’s broken wood.
My irrational, mad, paradoxical position is this: Gospel crucifixion is more desirable than worldly deification; anguish and conflict is more life-giving than Caesar’s (world’s) sedation; the world’s embrace and kiss carries the blood of Iscariot -- it has been paid for with silver. That is to say, we can measure our Gospel affinity, integrity, and faithfulness by the degree of worldly tension, conflict and rejection in our lives. If we are secure, comfortable and respected, we belong to Babylon more than to Gethsemane.
Let us attempt to root this vision in the Gospels: “Do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matthew 7:34).
Yes, planning our lives away with 30-year mortgages, and degrees, and professions, and the building of mausoleums is anti-Gospel. It is presumptuous and arrogant. It says, in fact, that we are the force and lord of history and if we concern ourselves enough with tomorrow we may become oblivious of today. “You fools, this night your soul is demanded.”
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me” (John 15:18)
It is not people which Jesus condemns, not the people of this world, but the values of the Prince of the world. They are: denying our humanity; fleeing from our genealogy as children of God; rejecting the dignity and sacredness of human life; judging, condemning and executing our brothers and sisters; setting ourselves apart with illegitimate power, privilege and ill-gotten affluence; charading as gods.
“For whoever would save his life will lose it” (Luke 9:24)
And how do we do this but by insulating ourselves from pain and suffering, securing ourselves behind false affluence and moronic professional titles by deferring life and being prudent about today so as to be comfortable tomorrow. We thus entrap ourselves in the fear of untruth, evil and hate, for to pursue truth, goodness and love are dangerous, high jeopardy paths. We are always reducing risk and the possibility of being foolish, though we should be scandalous and foolish in the world’s eyes, says Paul.
The world sets before us categories of either/or: one must be oppressor or oppressed; master or slave; rich or poor; powerful or powerless; winner or loser; worthy or unworthy. But the Gospel rejects these categories and imposes a new reality: stand with the oppressed as liberated; join hands with the slaves to free the master; create communion with the poor in saying no to the rich; deny the power of the privileged by claiming Spirit-power for oneself; laugh at the winners and be gracious with the losers; take grace from the unworthy and pray for the worthy. Most of all, the wisdom, opinion, and judgment of the world was tested by a beggar on Golgotha centuries ago. It was found infamous and evil.
But also know well it is not just worldly groups, states, and nations that embrace the evil one and burn incense upon his altar -- religious bodies, churches and educational communities do likewise, though their appearance might fool us. For Ananias and Sapphira are not just biblical figures, they live today, both members of a religious body that had made unconditional commitment to God and Truth and yet clung to the security and comfort of this world. Those people of moderation, lukewarm and reasonable, life and death was placed before them but their choice was death, the spiritual death of moderation that comes to Caesar-Christians.
The world will demean you and embarrass you. It will reject and humiliate you. It will spit upon you. Bid it peace and blessing, dear brothers and sisters, for happy and holy are you--your name will be written in the Kingdom.
When this article appeared, Ed Guinan was an active member of the Community for Creative Non-Violence in Washington, D.C. and editor of Peace and Nonviolence, a book of collected essays.
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