ecce homo

First should be said that life is associated with pain. It is not rarely that we hear expressions binding both, “life is pain” or “one must suffer to obtain” and of course the very beginning of life has pain imprinted, not only in humans but in all life forms – the act of giving birth is painful. Not only biological pain troubles mankind, also in the self-conscious man is challenged: with feelings, failure and loss. We are always susceptible to pain, grief, tears and the notion of sin. Of course, this is always connected to the awareness of the other as after all, we are of sociological nature.

By a very natural awareness of it, man has developed beliefs in a symbolic language that he could express and thus give him comfort; the image that even a god suffers or that of a god who suffers for the sake of man is presented in almost every scatological religious notion. Also has been raised the notion of divine piety, of something superior that acts in favor of the world and of the person. But these concepts, when not properly dealt with, will become grotesque. It was the misinterpretations of this that brought the perversion of auto-mutilation or self imposed suffering as a way of redemption; after all also in catholic orthodoxy was many times built the idea that sins are cleansed by blood, by sacrifice - even nowadays some Vatican statements may be interpreted in a way that man should endure pain, even atrocious physical illness to the mortal limit and are absolutely refused things like euthanasia and suchlike with the belief that one should face it having the stoicism of Jesus as role model. Thus, religious fanaticism can generate examples like those of self imposed torture as we see in the recreations of the Passion of Christ in Philippines or the payment of promises that bend people into walking on their knees [coated with blood after many miles of journey, as can be seen in the sanctuary of Fátima], which are barbaric distortions of the image of the Christ on the Cross.

It cannot be dissociated pain from Christianity, but the violent death of Jesus related in the gospels is not an ode to subjugation to any belief or personal truth that would cause you to humiliate yourself. That is why in Christian belief Jesus is named the Lamb Of God – rather than having mankind suffering the very God in an act of love presents itself to atone the humane and the divine, the cleanse of all sins. It is meant to be an act that releases life, freedom conquered through pain, and not one that condones imprisonment in that very pain. That was the great novelty presented by the Christian faith.

The problem is that those notions mentioned above are rooted deeper in the history of mankind and touch the superstitious – those primary notions of being, of a darker and wilder side of mankind. All the Old Testament has a dynamic failure towards God and of suffering to pursue atonement or even in the Hellenic Bronze Age - when a village was subjected to natural disaster it would be elected the ugliest man [beauty was connected to order and the Olympics who had prevailed over the chaos of the Titans] to be sacrificed and he would be given the title of “farmakoi”, to be the element of healing to the villages “miasma”. And it is accepted that pre-Christian European societies offered blood sacrifices to appease Nature and Gods.

What I intend to say is that this heritage, even with the advent of Christianity in the Western Civilization, is deep within man as an urge of soul cleaning that we all have, of health and perfection of the all as that is a trademark of the ego. That is why many don’t understand the meaning of the Crucifixion or don’t even recognize any value in it at all. At many times during history, even amongst Christian believers has been present the notion that man is unworthy of God, of that absolute love demonstrated by the Christian God in the Passion and thus punishment was a way to heal [as you cut a wound to clean the infected flesh] the sins one thought he had made, I’m not a physician but the truth is that the intensity of pain would somehow leave you numbed and in a apparent state of peace. Nowadays mental patients tend to silence their troubled minds in this manner. Additionally, suicide is the extreme act occasionally attempted to stop those inner demons some people are afflicted by. It seems clear to me that a god who would subjugate creation through pain is something for the great stories of H. P. Lovecraft.

There’s the certainty that man cannot escape pain that is inherent to life itself and values it more, but dealing with it has to be a path of transcendence and of dignity rather than imprisonment and destruction. Pain is not something of a Supreme Being that stands “ex-machina” as a judge; pain is a natural part of life and only that way can be associated to a Supreme Being, which is everything - which is life, and life is everything and part of the All. I think that each individual should revolt and fight it but in the end there’s only peace in acceptance.

[fui convidado a escrever este artigo na última edição da fanzine trilógica Laudatio Funebris, que tinha como motivo a dor e a ortodoxia. a revista, como sucedeu nos dois números que a antecederam, esgotou. a informação serve para pedir codescendência com o meu inglês]

אלעזר

após um clamor desesperado. uns incrédulos, num esforço contrafeito, fazem mover um selo megalítico que encerra a fatalidade contingente. o que pode o homem contra o que o ultrapassa? como acolher a calamidade senão com revolta e desespero? "se estivesses cá...", é dito o murmúrio duma alma ferida.

descerrado o pórtico da descrença vê-se a negrura do desespero, a pestilência e putrefacção da dúvida. sempre um temor horrendo sobre uma porta que se fecha, mas a morte não é uma porta que se fecha, é outra que se abre. a morte do homem é a consumação definitiva da existência, morrer totaliza a pessoa. a morte afecta o homem inteiro, mas não é a destruição do homem inteiro. permanece o fundamento primordial.