day no. 16,454: tenacity without tyranny and mercy without milquetoastery

“Chivalry offers the only possible escape from a world divided between wolves who do not understand, and sheep who cannot defend, the things which make life desirable.” — C.S. Lewis, The Necessity of Chivalry from Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays

Chivalry is the sanctified blend of tenderness and toughness, meekness and mettle, kindness and a killer instinct. In the medieval knight this elixir is immaculate. He is the perfect nth of goodness and severity. He is not a balance of the two, but the full dose of both uncorrupted and in concert.

Romans 11:22

Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God.

Only in Christ is this mixture manifested in us without corruption. Outside of Him. the one will always devour the other. Either justice will abandon mercy or mercy will tax justice to death; but in Christ, righteousness and mercy kiss without compromise. In Him, tenacity is without tyranny and mercy is without milquetoastery.

Psalm 85:9-10

Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him;

That glory may dwell in our land.

Mercy and truth rare met together;

Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Christ is the Lion and the Lamb. He is not a declawed Lion or a devilish lamb. He is not a Lion without teeth or a Lamb with fangs. He is not a domesticated house cat or a sophisticated bully. He is both Lion and Lamb to the nth degree.

"It is constantly assured, especially in our Tolstoyan tendencies, that when the lion lies down with the lamb the lion becomes lamb-like. But that is brutal annexation and imperialism on the part of the lamb. That is simply the lamb absorbing the lion instead of the lion eating the lamb. The real problem is--Can the lion lie down with the lamb and still retain his royal ferocity? THAT is the problem the Church attempted; THAT is the miracle she achieved." — G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Meekness and mettle mixed without being mixed up is a miracle. In Christ, we conquer and we cultivate. We dominate and decorate. We not only push back the darkness, but we do so by candlelight. We can be tenacious without being tyrannical and merciful without being milksops.