IF THE SALT LOSES ITS TASTE…
Few writings today can shake the heart of believers with as much force as the little book of Paul Evdokimov, The Crazy Love of God (El amor loco de Dios). With burning faith and words of fire, the theologian of San Petersburg shines a bright light on our routine and satisfied Christianity.
Thus does P. Evdokimov see our present moment: «Christians have done everything possible to sterilize the Gospel; you could say that they’ve drowned it in a neutralizing liquid. They’ve cushioned all that could impress, excel, or reverse. Thus converted into something inoffensive, this religion has been made leveled, prudent and reasonable, and we can’t do anything except vomit it out». Where does this unworkable and cushioned Christianity come from?
The critics of orthodox religion don’t linger on secondary questions, but point to what’s essential. In their eyes the Church doesn’t seem to be «a living organism of Christ’s real presence», but a static organization and «a place of self-nourishment». Christians don’t have a sense of mission, and the Christian faith «has strangely lost its quality of leavening». The Gospel lived out by Christians today «finds nothing but complete indifference».
According to Evdokimov, Christians have lost contact with the living God of Jesus Christ and have gotten lost in doctrinal questions. They confuse God’s truth with dogmatic formulas that are really only «icons» that invite us to open ourselves to the holy Mystery of God. Christianity moves toward the exterior and periphery, while God dwells in the depths.
Thus they look for a lowered and comfortable Christianity. As Marcel More said: «Christians have found a way to sit down, we don’t know how, comfortably on the cross». They forget that Christianity «isn’t a doctrine, but a life, an incarnation». And when the life of Jesus no longer shines in the Church, there’s hardly any difference between her and the world. The Church «becomes a faithful mirror of the world», which she recognizes as «flesh of her flesh».
Many undoubtedly will react, putting nuances and objections to a denouncement so blunt, but it’s hard not to recognize the base of truth toward which Evdokimov is pointing: in the Church there’s lacking holiness, living faith, contact with God. We are lacking saints who scandalize because they incarnate «the crazy love of God», we are lacking living witnesses of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The burning pages of the Russian theologian do nothing but remind us of the words of Jesus: «You are the salt for the earth. But if salt loses its taste, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled under people’s feet».
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
