the struggle, part 11 (on easter)

Matthias Grünewald, "The Resurrection" (1515)

the resurrection ought not to be understood as a miracle, but as the actualization of what we have always understood to be the idea of existing. to exist (ex-sistere) is simply to transcend one’s moment toward another, rather than remain unmoved by the flow of time, which is nothing like existing or even living. to exist is the inability to remain content with what one is and the need to exceed nature.

existing at its most basic takes place in the moment to moment. one lives in an intentionality towards that which is other, towards the next event. but this view is only partial and fails to grasps the wholeness of human existence. to refer to “ex-sisting” recognizes that humanity is more an ek-stasis than a hypo-stasis (sub-sisting). subsistence is to be below the level of life, to dig deep into the animal to find something unchanging, something impervious to time and History, to find something already dead. the very idea of human ex-sistence is to pass beyond itself in the totality of its being: refusing the idolatrous submission to life and death, being and non-being, as if they were the All. resurrection is to realize the intentionality of humanity toward the Beyond.

-LoA