No Longer Slaves But Friends

Reflections on the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48, 1 John 4:7-10, John 15:9-17)

“I no longer call you slaves… I have called you friends”, declares Jesus. Is Christian discipleship truly about friendship over slavery? Two philosophers, one Prussian (German Confederation) and the other French, propose contrasting views on the matter. For Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), author, philologist, and philosopher, Christianity preaches a “slave morality” and is wallowed in negativity. He makes a distinction between “master morality” and “slave morality” to describe two contrasting value systems. For him, Christianity promotes a “slave morality” because it preaches humility, meekness, and self-sacrifice as values to live by. He described slave morality as a “projection of ultimate power to provide a crutch for its impotent believers who are incapable of harnessing the power of life for themselves” (A Short Introduction to Nietzsche, 12). He proposed instead a “re-evaluation of values” to move towards “master morality” that valued autonomy, individuality and courage.

Simone Weil (1909-1934), a 20th-century French philosopher who was also a factory worker, wrote in her Spiritual Autobiography, “Christianity is pre-eminently the religion of slaves, that slaves cannot help belonging to it, and I among others.” However, what she means is quite the opposite of Nietzsche’s critique. Her experience of degradation in her workplace helped her grasp the true affliction of labourers in a capitalist society. As she reflected on the meaning of slavery, affliction, and humility, Weil discovered the relevance of Christ who took “the form of a slave” (morphē doulou) in Philippians 2:7 in two respects. Firstly, for the rest of her life, “affliction” would be central to her understanding of herself and the world around her. Slavery, which is of the domain of “affliction” (malheur), as she wrote in Waiting for God, is “quite a different thing from simple suffering (souffrance).” Affliction “takes possession of the soul and marks it through and through with its own particular mark, the mark of slavery.  Secondly, she writes, “The affliction of others entered into my flesh and my soul.” The value of empathy moved her to feel the suffering of the oppressed around her as her own.

While Nietzsche was critical of Christianity’s “slave morality”, Weil argued that it was her own Nietzschean experience of Christianity, as the religion of the slaves, that inspired her to convert from Judaism to Christianity. It was, for her, the path of compassion and solidarity. For Nietzsche, Christianity created slaves. For Weil, Christianity inspires slaves to find meaning, freedom and solidarity. For Simone Weil, the master is the one who renounces the power he has, who uses it to give it up, and voluntarily becomes a slave. For Nietzsche, a true master works for the rebellion and triumph of the strong from the ‘mediocrity’ and the coalition of the weak. For Nietzsche, our vocation is to become a master. For Weil, it is to embrace the slavery of Christ to find true freedom. At the heart of these two varied views on Christianity, is a marked difference in relating to God. Nietzsche’s analysis focuses on the question and dynamic of power, while Weil’s interpretation concentrates on the experience of meaning in solidarity. 

The challenge of today’s Gospel is to move from a model of relationship that is centered on power dynamics to a model that is based on relationality. We speak of our relationship with God through analogies and metaphors: Rabbi-disciple, master-servant, guru-shishya, shepherd-sheep, vine-branches, etc., In these images, there is a certain ‘hierarchy’ involved. The disciple/servant/shishya is not greater than the Rabbi/master/guru (John 15:20). The branches can do nothing apart from the vine. The lost sheep cannot find its way back until the shepherd finds it. Friendship, on the other hand, denotes a relationship between equals and that is perhaps why it somehow feels inappropriate to imagine God as a buddy. Jesus’ friendship challenges us to overcome a ‘hierarchy’ and power based model of relationship to one of friendship made up of reciprocal trust, solidarity and shared compassion. Peter calls Cornelius to the same challenge: ‘Get up’, he says to a man falling at his feet, and chooses the path of solidarity ‘I myself am also a human being’. The Holy Spirit reveals to the Early Church that the Gentiles and the Jews were called to a life of fellowship and solidarity.

Is our relationship with Christ inspired by slavery or freedom? In his incarnation, Christ makes himself a slave to embrace us in friendship through solidarity and compassion. As Paul says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). This friendship is based on knowledge (I have told you everything I have heard from my Father), choice (It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you), love (As the Father loves me, so I also love you), sacrifice (No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends), and service (go and bear fruit that will remain). Let friendship prevail over slavery and servitude.