Introduction article to Issue 25
Jesus Christ. Swine. Madness.
We have flipped entirely upside down. The world’s progression has become an absolute digression and its evolution a complete reduction. The philosophies it continues to build itself upon are ideas of madmen and have been stacked like a house of cards. The world chooses to live in madness, in the filth of its own possession, rather than to be disturbed by anything contrary to its insanity. We fall prey to this machine of insanity, running the race for ourselves—and only ourselves. Love has been distorted into a self-centered motive, respect has been reduced to tolerance of opinion, and self-sacrifice is almost an unheard of phenomenon. Men kill other men for paper money, children commit suicide, and mothers are tricked into killing their children in their wombs. Yet, the machine to feed our own desires and appetites continues to rage on within us and our society, not accepting any type of disturbance. Our society is like that of the Garasenes. When Christ was in their land, He cured a possessed man and cast the demons within him into a herd of swine. The swine then ran off of a cliff and drowned in the sea, causing the herdsman to run with fear into a nearby town. The people of the town, hearing what happened, went out to meet Christ and encountered the once possessed man sane and clothed again before His feet. The people were struck with fear and begged Christ to leave their country. The curing of a madman struck fear in them and it disturbed their way of life. They would’ve rather lived with the possessed, the mad, or the insane, than to have sanity, purity, and love in their presence. Today, our world reflects this same attitude. With open arms it embraces madness, nurtures it on the breast of apathy, and has raised it as the parent of post-modern culture.
When one turns away from the norms of this world, because he uncovers its insanity, he is labeled by the world as insane. Thus saneness has been labeled as madness and madness has been deemed as sanity. Even though many so-called heroes of our modern culture suffer regular divorces, take their own lives, endure drug addiction, etc., a person who turns to God and begins to love his neighbor more than himself, progresses in virtue and humility, etc., is labeled as an insane enemy. While it has become the norm to promote so-called humanistic equality among our society, the views of a Christian are somehow un-equal and neither are respected or protected as rights because in many ways they are contrary to what has become the norm. In the eyes of the world, Christianity is “madness.” We can see clearly that the attitude of the Garasenes is not one that died long ago, but it is extremely alive and pervasive today. A loving Christ, calling us to healing, is driven out of modern culture because He is a disturbance and the sanity He brings is not wanted by men of this age.
Let us strive to seek truth, steering clear of this world’s madness, and embrace the path of selfless love and humility like the God-man who humbled Himself from the highest heaven and redeemed our lowly nature by taking it upon Himself. Through God’s help, let us promote true love, self-denial, and truth seeking amidst this modern age of despair.
“At the sight of him they will be agitated with great fear and will feel astonished at his glorious salvation; for, repenting and sighing from the oppression of the spirit, they shall speak within themselves, saying: this is he whom we laughed at and held in scorn; we were so foolish as to account his life as madness and his end dishonorable; how, then, is he now numbered unto the sons of God and his lot is cast among the holy? We have therefore wandered away from the right path, and the light of truth bath not illumined us, and the sun hath not shone unto us; we were full of the wicked ways and perdition, and walked in the unpassable paths, but did not comprehend God’s ways.” –Wisdom of Solomon
