Page 24 - GALIET BENEATH THE ICON: The Lamp Dostoevsky´s Kirillov IV

Tears are not enough, will never be enough to engulf all the perpetual suffering and despair running through this earth. Kirillov’s despair is so deeply felt, as deeply felt, as when Christ ceases to show us the way to the kingdom of heaven on earth.
To see how Kirillov’s life-affirming nihilism turns to a life- denying nihilism is to look at myself in the mirror and ask, what can I do not to lose faith, not to lose love, not to lose Christ, not to lose touch with the thousands that have died before me for causes so that I may inherit a freer earth, an earth that still refuses to be free from causes, heroes and crimes in the name of God, of Liberty, of Justice but never, never in the name of simple love. Kirillov’s love for his ideal makes him a martyr. We feel for Kirillov when he tells Peter that he has lost faith in the world because “even the laws of nature did not spare even Him (Christ)... but forced Him to live among lies and to die for a lie”35 feeding Kirillov with such pessimism that “the entire planet is lie and rests on lies and stupid mockery...”36 Kirillov knows that Christ sacrificed himself, and took upon Himself the suffering of man, and he is frustrated that Christ sacrificed himself in vain...because he failed to produce a miracle, Christ died like any other man thus failing to give man the crucial proof that he is the Son of God and the savior of man.
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