The Value of Sacrifice

Dearest Rachel –

It may have been last night’s game of Civilization between Kevin and myself, which, upon being joined on the line by Erin, I found myself explaining my mild fascination about history, and the great men (and women) throughout it that helped to sculpt the world into the shape it is in, for better or for worse. Odds are, there are very few of them that you are likely to be able to meet where you are; power and influence, even to this present, somewhat more egalitarian (and perhaps I should say Warholian) day, have often required great sum of money to be exchanged somewhere along the way, and you’re familiar with Jesus’ admonition about wealth versus salvation; that whole ‘camel through the eye of a needle’ thing.

But I’m sure that there are at least a substantial number of well-known people who you have met, as well as vast multitudes of those whose stories were never known nor told. For all I know, it may be that the latter prove to be more colorful and compelling than the former, if for no other reason than that you’d not heard them before; while you’d possibly stand in line to chat with professor Lewis like we did his impersonator only a few years back at the local theater, you know many of his works quite well already. There may be so many new stories to hear related, that it might keep your ears busy for millennia.

Still, for whatever reason, I found myself awake at four this morning, wondering about the sacrifices made along the way. When Richard the Lionhearted was captured en route back from the Crusades, England was forced to pay a literal king’s ransom to free him, very nearly bankrupting itself in the process. To raise the funds, his mother Eleanor, acting as regent, was forced to raise taxes on both the church and the nobility (peasants hardly counted for this purpose, save for their contributions to their feudal lords) to a ruinous extent. In my sleep-fogged state, I thought I remembered this being his brother John’s doing, which brought him much of his own bad reputation – including that of pitting himself against the legendary Robin Hood. The clue that I was mistaken comes from Robin’s status as a legend in the first place; stories placing him in this time frame didn’t begin to occur until the 1500’s.

Another piece of the story that my dreaming mind seems to have made up out of whole cloth was the idea that the funds were delivered to his captors by a high ranking noble; in fact, I assumed (this being the medieval era, the so-called ‘dark ages’) that said noble might even have been taken in Richard’s stead, and possibly executed in exchange for Richard’s release. Now, while it would have been necessary to guard a literal king’s ransom (100,000 pounds of silver! This would be equivalent to $30 million dollars in today’s money) heavily en route, no one seems to be named in the historical record as a leader or sponsor of this guard, suggesting there was no hostage exchange, and certainly no execution – indeed, the kings who captured Richard were threatened with excommunication for their capture of the Crusader king in the first place.

But all of this got me to speculating about the requirements of official sainthood. It was, after all, supposedly promised to all who participated in the Crusades in those days (or at least, automatic entrée into heaven, which is, as I understand, what ‘sainthood’ represents, as defined by the Catholic Church, which were the exclusive gatekeepers to heaven in those days – although it seems that Richard is not, however, considered to be a saint. Perhaps it was only granted to those who perished in the effort?). Certainly, someone who offered his life in exchange for one of these Crusaders would be similarly eligible – what with martyrdom being another fast track toward that state, with even Jesus saying ‘greater love has no man than this, that a man lay his life down for his friends.’ And while this particular event turns out not to have been real, as my dreams don’t reflect history any better than they do real life, would this form of heroic sacrifice by worth anything, in eternal terms?

It’s not always clear. Paul talks about – among so many other things – offering his body to be burned, but that this sacrifice would be worthless without love, while James argues that one’s faith is proven by the things one does. Would someone offer himself up to death without some measure of love (however one may choose to define that) for the other person for whom they are sacrificing? Is Paul’s assertion merely academic, given Jesus’ take on such an action? Indeed, Paul himself references it by saying that Jesus Himself took it a step further, dying for us even as we were still enemies of Him – although in fairness, that enmity was on our part toward Him, and not at all the other way around. But can acting in a manner exemplified by our Savior be a tacit embrasure of Him and His teachings? I don’t claim to know; you have the answers now, but with now way of sending them to those of us you left behind, it’s kind of irrelevant.

Additionally, I don’t pretend to understand the process whereby ‘the Church’ bestows sainthood upon people, nor do I believe in its authenticity. Given our own Protestant beliefs, no human or organization (and let’s face it, ‘the Church’ – specifically the Catholic Church – is a human organization) has the right to make those sorts of determinations; God alone knows what goes on in the hearts and minds of everyone – we’re lucky to know and understand what we ourselves are thinking, most of the time. And in any event, we are all granted entrée into heaven at the point of conversion (although far too many of us never reach that point, sad to say – and that could lead to a whole new avenue of questions for you, but not now); our death, and how it happens, doesn’t factor into it, save as the moment of passage from earth to heaven.

But it does leave one to wonder…

Anyway, that was what I woke up to today. I’ll see if I can get in touch with you a little later on; things are starting to get a different kind of busy these days. Until then, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.