So it's now post-Easter. We celebrate the triumph of the resurrected Christ, because the passion and the pain are over, right?

WRONG.

Who says the resurrected Christ never got persecuted again after that? He did, again and again. His friends still failed him. People who claimed to love him still abandoned him. And it's still happening.

It is probably untrue that most people in this world - most Christians, even - have strong convictions about their values and beliefs. It is also probably untrue that they have strong convictions about issues of faith and friendship. They just don’t feel so strongly about such things.

So when someone like that fails to stand up for faith or friendship, perhaps the only excuse attributable to that failure to protect the faith or friendship is “He’s just like that. He doesn’t feel strongly about things.” After all, some people just aren’t the sort who’d act on a conviction, or even have a conviction.

But might it not be also true that these very people who’re “just like that” are also the ones who’d quickly dismiss Christ’s demands towards those who claim to be His friends? Inasmuch as I try to imagine Jesus saying, “Don’t mind him, he’s just like that. He doesn’t have very much of a conviction”, I can’t. Because He seems very clear that friendship with Him involves very high stakes, and that one must be willing to suffer - even die - for that friendship. How would one be willing to work out such a friendship without feeling strongly about it?

The Early Church had a name for people like that - “traditors”. These were people who gave up the sacred writings of the Church to be burned by the anti-Christian authorities. They were Christians, and they loved Jesus, but probably never felt very strongly about the wrongs and the rights of life (as long as these wrongs or rights didn’t affect them personally).

Traditors are the ones who’d say “You’ve got to understand the situation. It was really tough. It wouldn’t have been wise to have gone against those authorities. After all, these are just sacred writings of the Church; there’s more where that came from. So why should I lose my life over such a thing?”

Traditors are number one excuse-mongers. They excuse and quickly absolve themselves for compromising faith and friendship. But for them, it doesn’t matter, because they just don’t feel strongly about these things. So long as they don’t have to suffer.

Happy post-Easter.