Spiritual Combat

And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Crucifixion of Christ, Isenheim Altarpiece (detail), Matthias Grünewald, 1510-15 Depictions of the Crucifiction of Christ typically end in darkness and silence. The heavens grow dark, the distant Father is seemingly silent in the face of the murder of His Only Begotten Son, life fades from the Incarnate Body of the Son, He is taken down, He is laid in a [...]

Behold, But a Man Pontius Pilate is altogether human, perhaps too human. He is a man of some knowledge, but not a man of conviction or ideals. Pilate knows that truth and justice are important but, likely due to being assigned to the provincial backwater of Roman Judaea, decidedly not Roman and filled with a plethora of competing political and religious worldviews, took a subjective stance on the issue. What mattered at the end of [...]

For Our Sins There is nothing particularly necessary about the maltreatment that Jesus suffers as part of His Passion. None of the animal sacrificial victims of the Old Law were abused prior to their sacrifice, and their slaughter was as humane as a sacrifice could be.  Even the goat of Yom Kippur, upon which the sins of the Nation were placed, was simply let free. The abuse that Christ suffered prior to His death is [...]

Spy Wednesday Judas Accepting the 30 Pieces of Silver Icon, Maxim Sheshukov It would be wrong to view Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of the Lord, as a tragic figure in the unfolding of the last days of Our Lord’s Passion. Pitiable yes, but tragic no. Tragic denotes a figure to whom misfortune out of their control befalls. This is not Judas, for his actions were not fated but chosen by himself. He was [...]