What a contrast: God comes to us in Christ, is manifested in the
flesh, revealed to believing hearts, and the world yawns. Some fanatics
proclaim that an imaginary “end of the world” is at hand and the result
is mass hysteria (with fortunes made). In our country, it is far easier
to sell nonsense and destructive “entertainment,” ugly “music,” and
violent films then to turn a mind or two towards the living God. As a
people in history, we are choosing our fate: we want ease, wealth,
pleasures, entertainment, even as we spiral out of control, lost in
addictions, mindless entertainments, sheer verbal nonsense (such as
“end of the world” fantasies). Is this what it looks and feels like as
a society growers sicker and moves towards death?
There is much more mass interest in a new “block-buster” movie generated by degenerate Hollywood than there is in God. The “heroes” of American youths are drawn from the world of money-making sports, mindless music, and mass-indulging entertainment, not from the world of simple goodness, devoted service, courageous acceptance of death to protect human lives. We are shouting “crucify him” by the way we live, clutching the gods of self-love, self-esteem, self-importance. Over a hundred years ago, the Russian writer, Dostoevsky, warned that our civilization is dying because we rejected Christ: “The West has lost Christ. That is why it is dying; it is the only reason it is dying.” The loss of God and Christ is more manifest now, a century later. We are indeed dying as a people and as a culture. What we must wonder is whether or not we passed the point of no return? By prudent loving kindness we can help individuals to “get their lives together,” but there seems to be nothing one can do for the common good, for our society as a whole. Christ came for individuals persons, not to spare the destructive and dying Roman Empire, or Hellenistic culture, or even his own Jewish traditions.
So even as our culture and society grow sicker and die, there remains hope for individual human beings who will break from mass culture, from the sickness of our society, and tend the garden of their souls. Jesus came into the midst of the decadent and brutal Roman Empire; and although the civilization collapsed, with millions suffering in the process, some individuals responded to Christ. Some made the break from cultural decadence and found true and abundant life in God. That choice remains ours to make. The light that comes must be received, accepted, and lived in order to have its effect in us. Just “celebrating feasts” and not living Christ does nothing for our personal spiritual renewal.
