• I admit it’s a strange source from which to draw encouragement, but media responses to the NY Post photo of the man about to die on the subway tracks have been appropriately indignant. Photojournalists debate this kind of thing at length, but even if the incident were to lead directly to the installation of railings in the subway, everyone seems to know it’s wrong to make money off a man’s death, and wrong to feed people something they want to see but shouldn’t. The public debate, at least the parts I’ve read, are filled with healthy assumptions about the sacredness of life, the dignity with which life and death must be treated, and the shame implicit in certain darker, voyeuristic urges we all share. Even though a reporter might not understand her own outrage, we know it is by virtue of her bearing the image of God.
• What should you have done, had you been on the platform? For anyone claiming the name of Christ the answer is simple: you must save the man. And you must be willing to die trying, or you will never even attempt it. If nothing else, he wouldn’t have to die alone. Imagine the response to a photo of two people, one having jumped down to help, trying and failing, now embracing the man, shielding him (though futile) from the oncoming train. “ By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 Jn 3:16). Jesus died on behalf of all manner of people that society deems undesirable, if not entirely worthless. It doesn’t matter who the person is. “And who is my neighbor? ” the expert in the law asked, to which Jesus answered, in effect, “anyone who needs you” (Luke 10:25).
• All protests against what I’m saying can probably be answered in the biblical truth that death is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Not even close. Christ has conquered death (1 Cor 15:55), it’s power and sting are gone. What’s far worse for us is living a life that is a form of Peter’s denial — cowardice and mediocrity followed by interminable self-loathing.
• Ours is a culture not only shy on heroes, but mildly contemptuous of the idea. What if the Church were to become, in effect, a breeding ground for heroes, people who were in the habit of asking God for the courage to act rightly when the moment arrived? I think two things would happen. First, we would all see far more moments requiring courage and action than we do now. There are many things we pass by because we permit our faith to make no demands on us; we can’t imagine Christ expects us to risk our lives, our reputations, our prosperity. Second, we would break the habit of herd-like slumber that plagues most people.
• Seeing that Christ has redeemed us, Peter said we should “prepare our minds for action, ” setting our hope on the grace that will be brought to us (1 Pet 1:13). The preparation is in our minds, but the goal is that when the moment is right, we will act.