EPISTLES

Watching The Seventh Seal left me reflecting on how many lives are wasted in avoidance, rebellion, or ignorance of the divine. The film follows Antonius Block, a weary crusader returning home during the Black Death. Surrounded by plague, fear, death, and spiritual confusion, he encounters Death itself in human form and famously challenges him to a chess match. The game becomes a symbol of man trying to delay the inevitable long enough to find meaning, certainty, or peace before judgment comes.

One of the most famous scenes is Antonius quietly playing chess with Death by the sea. It is not simply about fear of dying, but about man wrestling with God’s silence and the uncertainty of faith. Antonius spends much of the film searching for certainty while death quietly follows him the entire time. In the end, death always wins against the body. No intelligence, power, philosophy, or pride can stop it.

What struck me most was not the despair of the film, but the contrast between restless intellectual torment and the quiet joy of ordinary life. Throughout the story, Antonius encounters a humble family of traveling performers — Jof, Mia, and their child. Unlike the knight, they are not obsessed with philosophical certainty. They live simply, love one another, share meals, laugh together, and remain human amidst the chaos of plague and death.

Near the end of the film, Antonius knowingly distracts Death during the chess game to help this humble family escape. That moment is deeply important. In a world consumed by fear and despair, his final meaningful act is not winning an argument or obtaining absolute proof from God, but saving a family and preserving ordinary human goodness.

The small family in the story seemed more alive than the knight who endlessly demanded answers from God. There is something deeply human and beautiful in living closely with your family, friends, and community. A simple meal, honest work, prayer, children, conversations, and shared suffering can contain more meaning than endless arguments about existence.

Modern people often want a god who always submits to human expectations, a god who must explain Himself according to our standards. But God is not an idol made by man. His ways are not always in harmony with human reasoning or modern sensibilities. Even old Catholic practices that seem strange to the world — penitential processions, fasting, sacrifices, acts of reparation, even some forms of physical mortification during Holy Week — come from the belief that prayer and sacrifice have spiritual value. History is filled with Christians who believed sacrifices and prayers could stop plagues, win wars, obtain graces, convert souls, and call down mercy from heaven.

The film reminded me that faith is not merely about obtaining intellectual certainty. It is also about humility before mystery. Too many people spend their entire lives running from God, distracting themselves endlessly, or trying to control everything intellectually, only to arrive at death unprepared.

Death will always come. The question is whether we spent our short life chasing emptiness or truly living — loving God, loving our family, serving our community, praying, sacrificing, forgiving, and remaining faithful even when heaven seems silent.