The Paradox of the Cross
I remember being 13 on Friday the 13th. In those days, long ago, it was the custom of the local newspaper, Milwaukee Journal at the time, to publish the pictures and names of youth that were 13 years old on Friday the 13th. Since that birthday I have considered Friday the 13th and the number 13 my lucky date and number.
Having an unlucky date and number as your lucky date and number is a paradox. This small paradox reminds me of the larger paradoxes we need to live with each day. In today’s news there is a military mental health report that the mental health problems of soldiers has decreased and increased. It has fallen in Iraq and risen in Afghanistan. Perhaps considering that the war in Iraq is declining the one in Afghanistan is escalating this is not so much of paradox.
But these wars do provide larger paradoxes. The more we occupy these countries and fight our ‘enemies’ the more persons there resent our presence and the more enemies we have in these countries. War always results in more war, but in these two wars it is even truer.
I remember a military officer saying of the war in Vietnam that “we must destroy this village to save it.” That is one paradox I would rather not live with.
However, there are some paradoxes we must learn to live with. Like a seed we need to die to live. Rain is good for the earth but too much rain can ruin the earth. Sometimes the least amidst us is the greatest.
Living with the tension of paradoxes is a skill we need to learn. Nature is a helpful guide in this respect. If we live with paradoxes, just accept them as the way things are, as we must do with the weather, life become easier. One’s curses may become one’s blessings; a loss can be a gain.
The beatitudes of the Gospel are paradoxes. E.g. “Blessed are the poor for they will be rich.” A paradox cannot be explained but can be appreciated. Living with a paradox is healthy.
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