This week we continue to look at the role of the cross to defeat Satan.
The spotlight upon Satan makes it impossible for him to fool humanity any longer. Paul attempts to say this (with other words Girard notes): And you - God made alive with Christ, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the Cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:13-15)
The nailing (of this legal document that tries to condemn us) to the cross is a first attempt to say that the principalities and powers, in other words, Satan, are defeated and even ridiculed by the cross.
I have to stop here. Girard says it out loud - the principalities and powers are the same as Satan. If you think back a few weeks, Satan was portrayed as both order and disorder - both of which can and do resist the non-violent work of Christ. It seems as though we must always keep our eyes open to how the powers around us operate. What is emerging from their realm of influence? What do they bring forth in the life around them? This does not mean that Satan is a devilish figure running around trying to turn us into a part of the principalities and power. Rather, these powers are so vital to keeping the world wrapped in mimetic violence and so good at making it all look so right and good that is is difficult to see that they are often acting quite contrary to the way of Jesus. Therefore, it is good to enter the day already expecting to see the violence (in all its many forms) that saturated the systems in which we live. For then, as people who rise out of our baptism each day, we will begin to see (by the power of the Holy Spirit) the differences of the way of the Cross and the way of the world. The day is then open to acts of everyday resistance that is the mark of the Cross.
Connection: It could be that the way we enter the world dominated by principalities and powers is to have an eye for healing. Being able to see how and when things are broken or corrupted or diseased, and begin to be the presence of the healing of Christ, Jesus. The Church is a resistance movement - but not one that destroys the other side. We daily witness to another way to be humans shaped by the Holy Spirit and walking in the way of the Cross.
As you walk with us, O God, teach us the ways that make for peace in a world that is in love with warring madness. Encourage all your saints who long to be nourished by your love. Amen.
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