Thanks to the ever-diligent John Stonestreet, I saw this article in the New York Times today. In it, Ross Douthat points out that “in the leafless hills of western Connecticut, … the only Christmas spirit that could possibly matter now” “isn’t just the manger and the shepherds and the baby Jesus, meek and mild,” but one where “the cross looms behind the stable — the shadow of violence, agony and death.” Only the cross of Christ can offer hope during times of suffering. I am not doing the essay justice, so I hope you take five minutes to read it for yourself.

Reading this piece reminded me of the only really good article I saw written during the aftermath of the devastating December 2004 tsunami. This one, written by David Hart, originally appeared in First Things in 2005, and can be read here. Like the NYT essay, this article also invoked the story of the Brothers Karamazov.

While the NYT article is easier to read than the one on First Things, both are worth wrestling with. In different ways, each author reminded that the last thing Christians need to do in the face of evil is to advance “the venerable homiletic conceit that our salvation from sin will result in a greater good than could have evolved from an innocence untouched by death.” The Christian narrative does not prove through argument that there is a goodness that negates acts of evil. Instead, it shows through eye-witness accounts how God offers us a life of faith that can “set us free from optimism, and [teach] us hope instead.” This is true in spite of, and especially during, those times when evil shows its face plainly. In context:

As for comfort, when we seek it, I can imagine none greater than the happy knowledge that when I see the death of a child I do not see the face of God, but the face of His enemy. It is not a faith that would necessarily satisfy Ivan Karamazov, but neither is it one that his arguments can defeat: for it has set us free from optimism, and taught us hope instead.

I thank God for a faith that does not depend on blind optimism, that boldly admits it offers proof only to the believing, and which finds its source in the Story of excruciating suffering whose earthly beginnings are found in a Bethlehem manger.