The event testified to within Christianity is evident in a life that has been freed from an idolatrous existence that turns us from the world to an iconic engagement with the world.
Faith, then, is not a set of beliefs about the world. It is rather found in the loving embrace of the world.
In order to destroy the scapegoat mechanism, a different strategy must be adopted. Instead of trying to create a community where there is no outsider, the real answer lies in understanding that there is a sense in which we are all outsiders. In concrete terms, this means that a community faces its own lack, rather than ignoring it and thus creating a scapegoat who must carry it.
But the problem is that the fundamental structure of scapegoating is not broken in the acceptance of the latest 'other.' If the underlying scapegoat mechanism is not decommissioned, then new 'others' will always arise to protect the group from its own internal conflicts.
Sinful activities are whatever we do with the goal of bringing us into proximity with that which we believe will fill the void in our existence.
Paul understood that the prohibition (what he called 'the Law') was not the water that extinguished excessive desire, but a fuel that fed it. The problem for Paul was not desire as such, but rather its morphing into an obsessive/excessive impulse through the introduction of a law—a law that tempts us to act immorally precisely by demanding that we act morally.
For just as one person's idol is another's icon, so one person’s fable is another's parable.
A romantic film might end with a passionate kiss that symbolizes the beginning of a new relationship between two people who fought all obstacles to be together. It will not end with a scene that depicts the same couple, one year later, sitting uncomfortably in a restaurant, silently resenting each other because of some unresolved domestic issue
Christianity is not brain surgery or rocket science, it is not quantum mechanics or nuclear physics; it is both infinitely easier and more difficult than all of these. The fragile flame of faith is fanned into life so simply: all we need do is sit still for a few moments, embrace the silence that engulfs us, and invite that flame to burn bright within us.
You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither high church nor low church, Catholic nor Protestant, citizen nor alien, capitalist nor communist, gay nor straight, beautiful nor ugly, East nor West, theist nor atheist, Israel nor Palestine, American nor Iraqi, married nor divorced, uptown nor downtown, terrorist nor freedom fighter, for all are made one in Christ Jesus.
For in the figure of Christ we are confronted with an atomic event that does not destroy the world, but rather obliterates the way in which we exist within the world. In concrete terms, this means that the darkness and dissatisfaction that make their presence felt in our lives are not finally answered by certainty and satisfaction but are rather stripped of their weight and robbed of their sting.
A scapegoat is that which we blame for not being able to get what we most desire; it is that which takes on the burden of our failure to get what we cannot reach—the sacred-object. A clear expression of scapegoating occurs when some individual or community is collectively viewed by another to be the obstacle preventing the attainment of their ultimate goal. Something one clearly witnesses in the way the figure of the Jew operates in fascist ideology. In this ideology, the Jew is seen to disrupt the society’s organic unity, tribal harmony, and collective identity.
Approaching the truth affirmed by Christianity as some abstract, objective assertion to be tested, simply demonstrates that the questioner is approaching this query as a problem to be pondered, dissected, and solved, rather than a mystery to inhabit and be transformed by.
The excessive pleasure we imagine receiving from what we want most of all is fleeting at best.
Our religious beliefs have not provided us what they seemed to promise.
The incoming of God as expressed in the incarnation represents a beautiful expression of this simultaneous revealing and withdrawal, for in the Incarnation the mystery of God is not dissipated but rather deepened. The mystery is not unmasked, but rather dwells with us, in our midst. The mystery is thus not overcome in the Incarnation but rather encountered there.