Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 1.djvu/70

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CAVENDISH MOXON

and only by a magical rite such as Baptism can the fancied stains be removed by identification with Christ. For the Christian, atone- ment no longer implies the killing of the Totem father. It rather requires the death of the sacrificial son. Jesus' masochistic feeling found an easy outlet here. He would be the suffering Son who would gain forgiveness for his brother men by offering him- self as a sacrifice to the Father. When Jesus felt this desire clearly he seems to have deliberately provoked his enemies to kill him by his entry into Jerusalem and by his rough handling of the vested interests in the Temple.

The apologists are right in claiming the universal appeal of the cross to the child-like mind. The passion and Crucifixion of Jesus satisfy equally the sadistic and masochistic trends. Those who love to dwell in devotion upon the tortures of Christ can regard them either subjectively as being suffered by Jesus with whom they identify themselves, or objectively as seen to be inflicted on the victim. In either case the meditations of Holy Week must ever appeal to the unconscious which thus indulges its desires because it has failed to find a socially useful sublimation of primitive libido.

"On the third day He tone again"

Jesus himself expected his sacrifice to be a mere means to his exaltation. For him the martyr's death was no tragic end to his being. And his expectation has been in a manner fulfilled. Jesus has risen far above all heavens, even above the F&ther himself, as the very centre of the new cult. Paul voices the normal Christian feeling when he declares that for him "to live is Christ, and to die is gain" because death means closer fellowship with Christ. Jesus, not the Father, is eaten in the Mass: at the name of Jesus only do the faithful bow and cross themselves. The religion is Christianity and the liberals have tried in vain to substitute for the orthodox faith in Christ as God their own faith in the Father of Christ as the essence of the Creed.

"He shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead "

Jesus was obsessed by the idea of suffering. He welcomes it for himself and his friends as an expression of love, for his enemies as an expression of his hatred for all who oppose him and his good news. God shall not let the Pharisees escape the suffering