“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the
life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
What is he saying? He is dead? How can that be? St. Paul is expressing something that shatters all logic, unless it is mere hyperbole—but he is dead serious. Rather, he is alive and quite serious. The crucified Christ is living in and through him, by the Holy Spirit. His life is an ongoing experience of faith in the Son of God, and we have to admire him. Oh, what a glorious feeling, to receive the full blessing of love and to be ever aware of it.
And how do you respond? That it’s fine for St. Paul or the other saints, but you’re no saint? You are satisfied just to cope, to get along, and to feel that you are in touch with the Lord in prayer—but to be dead to this life is too much. It’s not for you. No way. Yet it’s already happened to you, even if you are not aware of it. You were baptized; not just in blessed water, but also into Christ. Your old self was put to death in the font, and the hands of the priest lifted a new person up. That’s when you too, like St. Paul, had put on Christ with the white baptismal garment that was draped around your wet body.
“For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” the choir sang then, And the three circles around the font already led you into eternity. Therefore, there is no difference between St. Paul and you except commitment, awareness and absolute, total faith in the Son of God. May you grow into the consummate end of spiritual potential latent within you. And it’s not a simple matter in this society.
The problem for us is that we are all like the seed that fell on the path, stomped, trampled and smothered by substitute life styles that compete for our awareness, not one of them comparable to the life in Christ. Our world is replete with diversions, attractions and competitions to challenge the Holy Spirit in us. I know for example by all the hype in the media that a television sitcom is being marketed called The Sopranos. Obviously it has nothing to do with singers in choirs or opera. It’s an Italian family with Mafioso members who are working out their professions and striving to maintain some semblance of ordinary life as respected members of society. I assume that like so much of our media today in search of originality, the producers opted instead to imitate the success of The Godfathers, also having nothing to do with Christian baptism, but rather doing homage to the Sicilian brother hood also called “Cosa Nostra,” or “our thing.”
These alternate life styles, like the British James Bond series, capture the imagination of a society that is desperately in search of transcendent values. We live in an age when Christianity has been battered by the media. It’s a time called the post-Christian era. True Christianity is considered by many to be a life style of the past. I would say that Orthodox Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it never has been tried. Compare St. Paul’s reason for living against that of James Bond. Bond is committed to serving the English empire, or what’s left of it. Whatever he does or however he accomplishes his assignment, it has little to do with morals. He is free to live as he pleases. using and discarding others along the way, as long as he fulfills his mission. The Mafia members are permitted and encouraged to enjoy a normal family life, but to give their ultimate commitment to the Cosa Nostra. Nothing and nobody transcends that allegiance.
Such loyalties attract and repulse us simultaneously. They ought to cause us to reflect on the great question: What do you live for, and what would you die for? Many are caught up in gangs, cults, or organizations in some ways comparable to the above. As G.K. Chesterton put it: “Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.”