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THE TIME OF THE ANTI-CHRIST

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 1 2004 (IPS) - The atrocious massacres of innocent people in Iraq, Palestine, and Rusia bring to mind two Biblical expressions that Christians use when confronted by staggering injustice or a degree of perversity that stuns reason and obliterates human sensibility: \’\’the abomination of desolation\’\’ and the \’\’second coming of the Anti-Christ\’\’, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian and writer. There are times, like the present, in which the Anti-Christ seems to prevail. It erupts so fearfully that it paralyses us and almost strips the just of any hope. The category of Anti-Christ has been wielded throughout history by those who would demonise their adversaries. For this reason we must be cautious in using it and avoid facile labelling. But today, when the perversity at work in the world is so great, we must use it both to denounce and to give warning. The Anti-Christ is among us and is active on both fronts, politics and religion. Both have in common a disregard for human life and a lack of pity for the innocent. And both are cold-blooded killers.

The atrocious massacres of innocent people in Iraq, Palestine, and Rusia bring to mind two Biblical expressions that Christians use when confronted by staggering injustice or a degree of perversity that stuns reason and obliterates human sensibility: ”the abomination of desolation” and the ”second coming of the Anti-Christ”.

”The abomination of desolation” refers to a situation in which violence occurs with such virulence that it unhinges sight, burns away tears, and leaves us speechless. This is what happened to the people in Beslan. Afterwards, at the burial of the victims, it seemed you could hear the words of Saint Matthew on Herod’s the killing of the innocents: ”In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be consoled, because they are not.” It is infinite suffering and perpetual mourning.

The Anti-Christ can create another situation of extreme wickedness, one that can take root in people and movements. It is the reverse of Christ. Christ was not originally a person, in this case Jesus of Nazareth. Christ is a dimension, a way of being, a term to designate the presence of love, goodness, giving, compassion, and forgiveness in the world, from the just Abel to the last elect. This Christ-dimension makes itself present in each human being. In figures like Buddha, Krishna, Miriam of Nazareth, Gandhi, Dom Helder, and Sister Dulce, this dimension is condensed in a singular form. For Christians, the most sublime expression of this dimension was Jesus of Nazareth, who was called Christ for this reason. However, by no means did this imply a monopoly of the Christ dimension, which can also be found in other historical figures.

The Anti-Christ dimension stands in stark opposition to the Christ dimension. It represents the history of perversity, inhumanity, and destructiveness in the highest degree. It finds expression in forms of terrible injustice, ideologies that call for the elimination of ethnicities, and in political tendencies that choose violence and aggression as the only mode of resolving problems. It can also take the form of perverse figures, of which the 20th century offers a broad range of terrifying examples.

The Anti-Christ makes use of two weapons: politics and religion. In its savage, tyrannical, and arrogant political expression, it imposes itself on everyone and slaughters its opponents. In its religious manifestation, it uses holy symbols and the name of God to seduce people to its adopt its causes, convert them, and confer legitimacy on its wicked policies. Its greatest blasphemy, according to Saint Paul, consists in ”raising itself above everything that is called God”.

The Christ dimension and the Anti-Christ dimension draw all of us into dramatic confrontations. There are times, like the present, in which the Anti-Christ dimension seems to prevail. It erupts so fearfully that it paralyses us and almost strips the just of any hope. In times like these, Saint Paul provides this consolation: ”And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth.” But when?

The category of Anti-Christ has been wielded throughout history by those who would demonise their adversaries. For this reason we must be cautious in using it and avoid facile labelling. But there are times, like this, when the perversity at work in the world is so great that we must use it both to denounce and to give warning. Yes, the Anti-Christ is among us and is active on both fronts, politics and religion. Both have in common a disregard for human life and a lack of pity for the innocent. And both are cold-blooded killers.(END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

 
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