Francis Berger
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Freedom is Alignment, Not Submission

2/22/2022

6 Comments

 
“Instead of taking mastery of people's freedom, you increased it and burdened the spiritual kingdom of man with it forever.”

This line above is the accusation the grand inquisitor hurls at Jesus in The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor segment of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. The charge forms the basis of what the old cardinal outlines as the fatal error of Christ’s mission on earth – Jesus’ overestimation of humanity’s willingness and ability to embrace the “increased” freedom He offered them.

The old cardinal then outlines how his church had spent the previous fifteen hundred years correcting Jesus’ work through the three temptations Christ had resisted in the desert: miracle, mystery, and authority. The grand inquisitor and his church work to decrease human freedom and take mastery of it because – unlike Jesus – they do not think highly of man at all.

On the contrary, they profess to see humanity as it truly is – eternally depraved and eternally dishonorable. Weak, rebellious, slavish, – utterly incapable of freedom. Thus, the church’s corrective work aims to unburden humanity of the freedom Christ offers. Moreover, it actively presents people with the opportunity to surrender real freedom in exchange for the faux freedom of trembling submission to the external miracle, mystery, and authority of the church.

Dostoevsky’s The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor on the Nature Man is more than an incisive piece of fiction; it is a penetrating insight into the essence -- the what-it-is -- of Christianity.

To understand the what-it-is of Christianity is to understand the increased freedom Jesus offers, which, in my humble opinion, amounts to a completely new way of thinking about the nature of human freedom itself.

Jesus’s refusal to adopt miracle, mystery, and authority as means through which to draw men toward His offer of heaven and everlasting life reveals not only His deep love for and high esteem of humanity, but also His deep love for and high esteem of freedom. Within the context of the story, humanity and freedom are presented as inseparable. Any degradation of freedom is a degradation of humanity; and any degradation of humanity is a degradation of freedom.

Yet the grand inquisitor’s assessment of humanity as a rebellious, weak, slavish species that desires everything but freedom seems to strike much closer to the truth than Christ’s respect for humanity as beings capable of true freedom. Within the context of the story itself, humanity would rather dwell within the faux freedom of the inquisitor’s church than to dare obtain the increased freedom Christ offers – but this “reality” is not limited to the story!

Look at our world today. How many people really want to be free? How many would rather willingly enslave themselves to anything and everything external in exchange for the peace and worldly comfort of being unfree?

Speaking of peace and worldly comfort, the inquisitor insists his church provides both. Moreover, this provision proves that he and his church are more compassionate than Christ is. Rather than burden humanity with high expectations that can never be fulfilled, the “corrected work” seeks to meet men where they are and keep them there – in peace and comfort that leads nowhere but death.

Our current situation in the world is the fulfillment of the grand inquisitor’s vision of humanity: “Oh, we shall persuade them that they will only become free when they renounce their freedom for us and submit to us. And what does it matter whether we are right or whether, we are telling a lie?”

The “freedom” that comes with submission and renouncing freedom is the call of the satanic totalitarianism that engulfed the world in 2020.

The increased freedom Christ offers is the revelation of the innate divinity of man aligning with the divinity of God in freedom that is “created” by neither God nor man, but upon which both depend and through which both can create – together. 
6 Comments
CRC
2/22/2022 20:16:58

I think it is critical to think about the story of the Grand Inquisitor, the Inquisition, the Gregorian Reform, the priesthood and clergy in general in the context of ancient Israel. Israel was constantly unfaithful, pining after the fleshpots of Egypt, ritually sleeping with Assyrian temple prostitutes, sacrificing their children to mammon and moloch, and falling into other divers forms of idolatry. In Maccabees, the Temple priesthood collaborated in placing the Apollonian Abomination in the Temple Sanctuary. The hypocritical scribes and pharisees were Christ's primary opponents, and the High Priest Caiaphas (the analogue of the pope) handed Christ over to the Romans (the secular state) to be crucified.

Notice that the Inquisition (both Spanish and Roman) also handed their condemned over the secular arm for execution, they did the exact same thing Caiaphas did.

All of the Twelve but John denied him, and Judas betrayed him. Peter "the Rock" denied him. Notice that Christ promised the Church would prevail, not that Peter would.. Christ prayed that he remain faithful, then Peter immediately failed, and has been grossly failing us sporadically ever since. This should give us great hope, because despite his constant treason, the Church still persists and prevails..

Christ told us "the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers" (Matthew 23:2-4).

That entire chapter is relevant here in just the same paradoxical way - "do not call any man Father or Teacher.." etc. That's either proof (as some fundamentalists say, but notice how they themselves do not strictly honor the principle, in that they all call their fathers fathers, and teachers teachers.. But that's where strict "literalism" in the space of the Gospel, where rationally trying to control Christ's paradox will lead you..) of Catholic and Orthodox scriptural infidelity, or else is divine hyperbole meant to upturn our thoughts..

I would say in response to the Inquisitor that without the miracles of the Resurrection and forgiveness, we are all dead in our sins. The miraculous is what enables us to forgive and defy him. The miraculous is not optional.

Furthermore, and contradict George Carlin's bit mocking how his Catholic school theology teachers always ultimately responded to his questions with the answer that it is all - I say that everything is always a mystery, that his becoming an atheist doesn't solve the problem of the mystery of being, consciousness and conscience for him. He may want to deny it (and I hope he ultimately hasn't) but everything is all still an eternal mystery, no matter how much you may wish in your pride to deny it..

We all each either will venerate and worship the mystery, or deny him.. This is the beautiful choice confronting us, the source of all hope..

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Francis Berger
2/22/2022 21:32:31

@ CRC - The choice is indeed beautiful. You have made yours. So stick with your persisting and prevailing Church.

I'll stick with Christ, freedom, and my "pride".

Reply
CRC
2/23/2022 03:14:38

I'm not accusing you of pride. I'm not accusing you of anything at all. I'm just pointing out that the prophecy is that that the tares and wheat grow together, and that those in religious authority are often, if not most often, wolves.. I've been trying to maintain my equilibrium in community, but it is getting more and more difficult. I'm just trying to rationalize things, so as to keep my internal coherence.

Anyway, I'm sorry, Francis. I'm going to put the computer away for Lent. I've noticed that people - including me - seem to be losing it a bit. Too many opinions, not enough kindness and patience.

I've been shooting my mouth off far too much lately, and it results in nothing good. Thanks for writing this blog, in any case. I truly enjoy reading it, I appreciate your insight.

jorgen
2/23/2022 00:18:15

"Christ told us 'the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do...' (Matthew 23:2-4)."

I fail to understand how so many people don't see that is sarcasm! Jesus was dismissing the sabbath that the scribes and Pharisees had blown out of proportion; he was saying things like "the sabbath was made to serve man, not man to serve the sabbath" and thus telling people to NOT do what the scribes and Pharisees say....but then you take this dripping with sarcasm verse literally about doing WHATEVER the scribes and Pharisees tell you to? Like....wHaT?!? Also, some translates translate the first line "the scribes and the Pharisees HAVE SET THEMSELVES in Moses seat" which makes the sarcasm all the more obvious (as if it wasn't obvious enough already via CONTEXT). There is nothing in the Old Testament to support the idea that God set the scribes and pharisees in Moses' seat; there are no Pharisees in the Old Testament to begin with! Their sect begins in 1sts Macabees and its clear they appointed themselves! I think the people pushing this argument of blind obedience to Rome see the same thing I see but frame a dishonest argument to win advantage, pure and simple. Because I don't buy post-modernity's adage "never ascribe to malcie what could be ascribed to stupidity" but have found it actually goes the other eay around. How could anyone really be blind to Jesus' sarcasm here? Nobody is that stupid; its just ecclesial political posturing.

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Francis Berger
2/23/2022 19:31:22

@ CRC - You have nothing for which to apologize. My only concern with the observations you shared is that they appear to miss the main point I was trying to make in this post, which is that Christians should put first things first and allow themselves to be guided internally rather than externally. Every Christian must take personal responsibility for their faith regardless of whether they belong to a church or not. This is no longer an option. We can no longer pass on that responsibility to any external religious authority.

You appear to put forward a fairly standard view among Catholics - the people within the Church may be hopelessly weak and corrupted, but the Church itself is immaculate and beyond reproach and will, ultimately, prevail because of Christ's promise, the eternal mystery, and so forth.

That is all fine and well, and I have no quarrel with any Christian who decides to remain loyal to their church, but Christians who choose to do so must assume full responsibility for the decision.

Just so you know, I attend Mass on Sundays. My son serves as an altar boy. Having said that, I would be hard pressed to consider the Church - or Christian church - merely corrupted. We are deep into a very "hot" spiritual war, and I personally do not believe the churches are on the right side -- but this does not mean all is lost for Christianity.

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Lady Mermaid link
2/23/2022 21:57:53

You really get into the heart and nature of freedom. It's amazing to see how both the right and the left have increasingly bought into submission to external bureaucracies. Science that was once about asking questions now demands to "Trust the experts". Public worship and sacraments that were once essential can be declared optional in the name of "public health".

While the spiritual war is certainly hot, I believe that God can use these circumstances to co-create w/ any willing man. The loss of trust in all kinds of authority is difficult, but this process may be the necessary in order to fully rely on God internally. As far as I'm concerned, there will always be a church "Where two or more are gathered in My name"

This reminds of a post the other day where the comment section discussed the more personal nature of Celtic Christianity compared to mainland Europe. This is not to advocate recreating the early Celtic faith, but we can learn to develop holiness and beauty even if we're increasingly isolated from institutions.

https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2022/02/jesus-as-addition-to-pre-existing.html

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