While agreeing with Toynbee that we humans have
continuously worshiped false gods from ancient times through today, we differ
in our identification of them. Rather than referring to states, whether
municipal or imperial, as our gods like Toynbee does, we have identified the
objects of our devotion as the six conventional yet false gods of Olympianity.
Historically, all municipal and imperial states, even
such exemplars as Athens and Rome, end up demanding destruction and death to a
far greater degree than providing creativity and life. Toynbee noted that,
interestingly enough, this failure of states “opens the way for the rejection
of the worship of human power in all its forms; and this disillusionment with
discredited human idols opens the way, further, for a change of heart through a
change of attitude towards Suffering” (78).
We have noted that there are two paths which we may take
as individuals and communities. The path of the Olympian gods, by far the most
popular path yesterday and today, is the path of power. The path of power is
based on falsehood, expresses itself through indifference toward the suffering of others, and ends in death.
While many find the pursuit of this path satisfying for a time, eventually the
time comes when, as Michael Sheehy once put it (Is Ireland Dying?, 1968), “cultural decay progresses to the point
as to shock even the complacent.”
When that time comes, says Toynbee, the “converted soul…adopts,
instead, the opposite attitude of accepting suffering for oneself and trying to
turn one’s own suffering to positive account by acting, at the cost of suffering,
on one’s feelings of Pity and Love for one’s fellow-creatures” (78).
This brings us to the second of two paths: freedom. If
the Olympian gods would bully, bribe, and deceive us into serving them on the
path of power, Jesus Christ daily invites and enables us to join him as friends
on the path of freedom. With him on that path, he shares with us all truth, love,
and vitality and shares these with others through us.
Toynbee rightly points out that, if we wish to avoid
suffering, power is the path to take. If love, however, is our goal, that lies
on the path of freedom—the freedom to embrace suffering we could otherwise
easily avoid.
Copyright © 2018
by Steven Farsaci.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.