THE “NEW AGE” AND EASIER LIFE

 (THE ELIMINATION OF “SACRIFICE”)

            Only they who look at the horizon can somehow get in touch with the ways and the thoughts of God, but never completely comprehend them. Likewise, it is on the far horizon, the very place where the Sky becomes Land or Sea, where the former consents to unite Himself with the Latter; but that union is made in a manner and at a spot which has never been found by Man (Is 55: 8—9).

            One cannot bring down from the Peak –make it equal to the human mind—that which being so high is therefore, and at the same time, so far above the human intellect.

            Nevertheless, the Sacrificial Act, after having been simplified in Its rites, was finally rendered into the languages nowadays spoken by Men. The intention was to make it easier to be understood, and better used, by the inhabitants of the Age of Modernity; an Age, by the way, not very willing to accept any form of thought different from its own.

            For simple-minded people –who tended to be naïve and were not very afraid of being deceived—, this attempt merely manifested the desire of bringing Men closer to the meaning and the content of the Sacrificial Act without diminishing any of Its essential elements but providing It with a presentation more in keeping with the ways of the thinking of the New Age.

            And yet, all this could not appease the anxiety of the bride. She knew what was going to really happen in the world of Men. And the ensuing events proved her right.

            The Sacrificial Act, through which the Bridegroom rescued Men and showed them the degree of His love for them, was the Highest Manifestation of Love known to all Ages. Therefore, Love being the Greatest of all the Mysteries –in Its Infiniteness as well as in Its Ineffability—, having sprung directly from Being with Whom It is One Thing, and existing as the Only Motor of all Life…, that Love Man cannot attempt to diminish; not even with the goal of putting It within the reach of Man’s limited reason and trivial sentiment. 

                                   For love is strong as death,

                                   passion as relentless as Sheol.

                                   The flash of it is a flash of fire,

                                   a flame of Yahweh himself[1]

            According to this text, Love is made equal to the irresistible Strength that Death has; as if Love is provided with an impetus similar to the impetus of the Reaper who, with his unwavering and unstoppable will, always puts an end to the earthly destiny of Men. Because Love cannot tolerate being overcome or replaced by anything, Its passion is put on the same level as the stony hardness of the Sheol.

            Apparently –but only apparently—we are facing again a metaphorical language and again in a human fashion, for no other way of expression has been found by the Book of the Bridegroom.

            The fact, though, is that the Sacrificial Act, or the Death of the Bridegroom for the sake of the bride, is the greatest demonstration of Love she has ever received or anyone has ever imagined; a demonstration carried out in such a way that no equal has been ever known throughout all the Centuries. Finally, once again, Love and Death are thus mysteriously united, as if they were walking hand in hand. For Man has not been granted any greater way of showing Love than giving up his Life, freely offered to the Reaper for the beloved person: Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends.[2]

            Death, like Life, only has meaning and makes sense in Love and together with Love:

                                   For whether we live, we live unto the Lord;

                                    or whether we die, we die unto the Lord.[3]

            Ever since Death happened out of Love –the Bridegroom’s Love—, only in Love does Death find any meaning; therefore, why should one wonder at the fact that the Sacrificial Act –where the Bridegroom gives up His Life out of Love—is just that and nothing else: The Act and Demonstration of Love never offered before to Man. Thus, only Death out of Love –that is, only when Death has turned its old character of punishment into Victory (I Cor 15:55)—allows Joy to illuminate her [Death], so that she finally becomes, in Joy’s blissful arms, a lovely Death. That is why, ever since the very moment that the Bridegroom made Death His own, only Death out of Love matters. As the bride says:

His eyes fixed on my eyes; his gaze pierced me through

before Dawn awoke and made the sky rosy;

and I was wounded so deeply that I knew

if he took his sweet gaze from me, then surely

death caused from love would quickly overtake me.

His loving eyes looked at me

before white Apollo appeared in the sky,

and they wounded me gravely

with such sweet love that if I

should keep looking at them, I surely would die.

            The Book of the Bridegroom goes on speaking of Love and of Death out of Love; and it does so in such a sublime way that it seems a human way and, simultaneously, in such a lofty way that it makes us believe it is divine:

                        Many waters cannot quench love,

                        neither can the floods drown it.

                        If a man should give all the substance of his house for love,

                        he shall be despised.[4]

            But then Men…? Can they –who have been able to confuse and equate Love with sex; who have finally chosen the mere possibilities of their reason alone and the shortcomings of their language—can they now understand what the Sacrifice of Love is?