FAITHFULNESS IN A VOID
Andrew Louth, Early Christian Writings, (short reflection)
The Governor then said, “I have wild beasts here. Unless you change your mind, I shall have you thrown to them.” “Well then, call them up,” said Polycarp, “for it is out of the question for us to exchange a good way of thinking for a bad one…The other said again, “If you do not recant, I will have you burnt to death…” Polycarp rejoined… “Bring out whatever you have a mind to.”
To undergo suffering and death joyfully was from the very beginning considered a sign of grace in the Christian martyrs - as though grace could do more for a human being than it could for Christ. - Simone Weil
Polycarp did not seek out martyrdom nor commend it. That said, at the age of 86, unable to untie his sandals, one must admire the vigorous determination he displayed when facing his own. His endeared response to the threat of death rings like an old gospel song, “For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong.” You can almost imagine the scene depicted with Eucharistic language, prayers, and the smell of bread as the pyre burned. With all the illustrative metaphors and his lively indifference, it is fair to ask: does the account exaggerate? Is there any fetishism or martyrdom complex within it? We do know that the phenomenon was an issue in the early church. Weil’s statement draws out a legitimate question for us. How is it that many of the martyrs seem to be bold, defiant, and collected when Christ himself “could not face the harshness of destiny without a long tremor of anguish.” To Weil, the only people who seem “superior to ordinary human misery” are those who resort to “the aids of exaltation, fanaticism, to conceal the harshness of destiny from their own eyes.” It’s easy, she writes, to die “faithful to power and prestige.” But faithfulness in a void is almost impossible.
