on sacrifice

some readings and reflections

I. Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

For weeks she had been unable to raise herself in bed, but, at half-past two in the afternoon, she sat up and exclaimed: ‘Dear Mother, the chalice is full to overflowing! I could never have believed that it was possible to suffer so intensely… I can only explain it by my extreme desire to save souls.’ And a little while after: ‘Yes, all that I have written about my thirst for suffering is really true! I do not regret having surrendered myself to Love.’ She repeated these last words several times.

II. Matthew 16:24-26

Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?’

III. Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

I saw perfectly clearly that if he was going to show us now his joy and gladness there can be no pain, earthly or otherwise, that will trouble us, but that all things should bring joy and gladness. But because he shows it along with his cross and passion (as he had to endure it in his life), so we too must endure discomfort and hardship with him—as indeed our natural weakness necessitates. He suffers because it is his will and goodness to raise us even higher in bliss. In exchange for the little that we have to suffer here, we shall have the supreme unending knowledge of God which we should never have without it. The sharper our suffering with him on his cross, the greater our glory with him in his kingdom.

IV. Vicki Burbach, The Lost Art of Sacrifice

When we recognize the intimate relationship between our own souls and each and every other soul that makes up the Body of Christ, we can see the potential consequences of our actions. When I offer myself in any way for the good of another out of love, I also help myself… Every part of the body serves the body as a whole as well… Conversely, when I pursue my own interests to the exclusion of others, I destroy my very self because I infect the Body of Christ with a perversion of truth. And this self-interest affects every other area of my life (and the lives of those I meet) in a destructive way.’

V. Paul D. Murray, ‘Living Sacrifice: Is there a non-pathological way of living suffering as sacrifice?’ in K. Kilby and R. Davies, eds, Suffering and the Christian Life (London, 2020)

However, when transposed into the conditions of finitude, materiality, temporality and a sin-strewn world, this dynamic of life-giving, self-giving love does bring inevitable risk, likely resistance, and the potential for suffering in its wake—as seen in the life of Jesus—whilst also still always being ultimately creative and transformative, as definitively shown in the resurrection. If in the created order as it actually exists, the life of love is a locus for suffering, we see in Jesus that such consequential and unavoidable suffering can also become an intensified place of living this one act of life-giving, self-giving love and so, in turn, can become a locus for love’s transforming effects.

VI. Romans 12:1

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

VII. bell hooks, All About Love

Extolling the transformative power of love in his essay ‘Love and Need,’ Merton writes: ‘Love is, in fact, an intensification of life, a completeness, a fullness, a wholeness of life… Life curves upward to a peak of intensity, a high point of value and meaning, at which all its latent creative possibilities go into action and the person transcends himself or herself in encounter, response and communion with another. It is for this that we came into the world—this communion and self-transcendence. We do not become fully human until we give ourselves to each other in love.’ The teachings about love offered by Fromm, King, and Merton differ from much of today’s writing. There is always an emphasis in their work on love as an active force that should lead us into greater communion with the world. In their work, loving practice is not aimed at simply giving an individual greater life satisfaction; it is extolled as the primary way we end domination and oppression. This important politicization of love is often absent from today’s writing.

Much as I enjoy popular New Age commentary on love, I am often struck by the dangerous narcissism fostered by spiritual rhetoric that pays so much attention to individual self-improvement and so little to the practice of love within the context of community. Packaged as a commodity, spirituality becomes no different from an exercise program. While it may leave the consumer feeling better about his or her life, its power to enhance our communion with ourselves and others in a sustained way is inhibited.

VIII: Georges Bataille, Eroticism

The saint is not after efficiency. He is prompted by desire and desire alone and in this resembles the erotic man.