To this shadowy land, that knows neither sin nor redemption from sin, where evil is not moral but is only the pain residing forever in earthly things, Christ did not come. Christ stopped at Eboli.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the nature of sin and suffering, suggesting that Christ's teachings do not apply to a realm devoid of moral judgment.
Carlo Levi's quote speaks to the existential condition of humans living in a world filled with pain and suffering, where traditional concepts of sin and redemption seem irrelevant. It conveys the idea that Christ's message is not intended for those who dwell in a state of suffering without moral agency, highlighting the complexity of human existence and the spiritual implications of living in such a 'shadowy land.'
In practice
In a sermon discussing the meaning of redemption, this quote could illustrate the complexity of moral existence.
The love of God is a hard love. It demands total self-surrender, disdain of our human personality. And yet it alone can reconcile us to suffering and the deaths of children, it alone can justify them, since we cannot understand them, and we can only make God's will ours.
I think of the security of cages. How violence, cruelty, oppression, become a kind of home, a familiar pattern, a cage, in which we know how to operate and define ourselves.
...we shall incur no slight injury, but rather great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the inclinations of men who aim at exciting strife and tumults, so as to draw us away from what is good? Let us cleave, therefore, to those who cultivate peace with godliness?
Commit the oldest sins the newest kind of ways.
Hegel seems to me to be always wanting to say that things which look different are really the same. Whereas my interest is in showing that things which look the same are really different. I was thinking of using as a motto for my book a quotation from King Lear: 'I’ll teach you differences'. ... 'You’d be surprised' wouldn’t be a bad motto either.
He who looks sinward has his back to God-he who looks Godward has his back to sin.
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