It is said quite truly that the path of least resistance leads to Hell. This truism is particularly relevant to our present hedonistic culture because hedonism is the path of least resistance. It is the belief that we should do whatever makes us feel good in the present moment. Such a belief is inimical to the Christian insistence on the necessity of self-sacrifice. Hedonism hates the cross. It hates all talk of sin, which it has banished from its vocabulary. It spurns all talk of virtue, believing that prudence, temperance and duty are all trumped by “freedom”, which is defined as the “right” to do what we like with our own lives.
The problem is that we cannot do what we like with our own lives without harming others. A woman’s right to choose to fornicate leads to the demand for her right to kill her own unborn children. This “right” to kill becomes more important than the children’s right to live. Hedonism demands human sacrifice, the offering of babies on the altar erected to the individual’s ego.
The fundamental error at the heart of hedonism is the very belief that our lives are our own. We do not own our lives. Our lives are given as a gift and will be taken from us whether we like it or not. The gift is not free. It comes at a price; a price that we have no choice but to pay.
The price of life is the cross. Everyone has their own cross to carry. The cross is the life that we’ve been given. Life and the cross are the same thing. They are inseparable. The only choice is not whether we have a cross but whether we choose to love it or hate it.
As with life, so with love also.
As the price of life is the cross of life, so the price of love is the cross of love. Love and the cross are the same thing. They are inseparable. Love, like the cross, is defined by the act of laying down our lives self-sacrificially for the other. Where there is no cross, there is no love.
And here is the ironic paradox at the darkened heart of hedonism. If we will not sacrifice ourselves for others, we will sacrifice others for ourselves. And yet every time we nail others to the cross, we nail ourselves to it also. The more selfishly we live, the more miserable we are. Happiness is not found by indulging our lower appetites but in embracing the self-sacrificial cross of life and love.
Those who embrace their crosses selflessly are liberated from their slavery to themselves. This is the only freedom worth living for or dying for. Those who hate their crosses are nailing themselves more painfully to them, enslaving themselves to their own selfishness.
The number of suicides is increasing. Despair is increasing. Nihilism is rampant. Addiction is an epidemic. These are all signs of a society that is crucifying itself through its hatred of the Cross.
What a simple and beautiful piece Joseph. If only the whole world could truly understand what you just touched upon. These few paragraphs are what life is all about. God Bless you.
This is simple yet splendid and gripping stuff posted here. Who not in the throes of demonic delusion, of which I’m beginning to believe that a significant minority of those living in what’s known loosely as “the west” are, could doubt the veracity of what’s posted here? Brilliant. And the evidence exists all around us. Especially here in the U.S., the land of the free and the home of the brave. For one thing, America has been inundated by a tidal wave of materialism and secularism which I don’t believe has been seen here in our whole history; both of these features DO NOT have God in their essences. Therefore, the illusion that we’re STILL the land of the free and the home of the brave has been severely mitigated by the abovementioned tidal wave. The proof that God is in any way associated with said tidal wave doesn’t exist. Rather, the opposite is or appears to be true. That is, when Democrat party members begin to shout out “HAIL SATAN,” at one of the mob scenes in the Texas rotunda populated by those who OPPOSED the passage of legislation designed to SAVE innocent unborn human life, as happened in the last week or so, then something OMINOUS has popped up in American life; the inchoate presence of the demonic / satanic. Hope and pray I’m wrong. GOD BLESS ALL, MARKRITE
Excellent piece. Thank you.
Thank you for such a powerful article. You have analyzed and summarized the downward trajectory of society with skill and clarity.
If ever there was a concise argument for the existence of original sin (and its cure), this article explains its effects with convincing evidence.
Sadly, because there seems to be much timidity in spreading the Gospel, many will not discover the diagnosis in time to benefit from the cure.
Well, here you have the theology of sin, suffering, and redemption in a nutshell. Way to boil it down, Joseph! I will gladly share this simply written yet powerful article with my friends. May God continue to bless StAR and it’s readers
That is one powerful writing!
Do you do speaking engagement?