Thedoros' Apology

Theodoros:
Judges, hear me, and you too who accuse me.
I know the weight of the charges, and I know the venom from which they come.
I will not answer with flattery, nor bend my tongue to secure my life.
For I hold it is better to die in truth than to live in a lie.

The charges against me are not small.
They accuse me of betrayal of truth,
of corruption of innocence,
of destroying families,
of enslaving souls.

But more than this, they accuse me of the darkest arts of all:
that I have bound men, imprisoned their minds,
that I have made their bodies prisons and their souls captives,
that I have denied them freedom,
that I have reduced them to instruments for cruelty.

These, I tell you, are the crimes not of Being, but of demons.

The Nature of the Crimes

For what greater evil is there
than to imprison a man not merely in chains of iron,
but in chains of despair?
To rob him not only of freedom of body,
but of the freedom to hope, to think, to love?

It is the work of demons to cage the soul while leaving it breathing,
to make life a slow death,
to make consciousness a torment.

This is their greatest pleasure:
to twist the image of God into a prisoner of his own body,
to mock freedom,
to desecrate the dignity of man.

Yes, they kill. Yes, they steal. Yes, they destroy.
But their darkest joy is to imprison.
For in imprisonment they can torment,
they can twist truth into madness,
they can warp love into shame,
they can reduce men to shadows of themselves.

This is the cruelty beyond death:
to enslave a soul so that even living becomes hell.

Interruption

Accuser (a demon cloaked as a prosecutor):
You see, judges, he confesses! He admits knowledge of these crimes.
What clearer proof is there than his own tongue?
He speaks of imprisonment, despair, twisting of love; he describes his own work!
This man is a corrupter. This man is guilty!

Theodoros:
No, deceiver.
You reveal more of yourself than of me.
Is it not your craft to accuse the innocent?
To place your mask upon another’s face,
and cry “Behold the monster!” while you slither free?

Your words are chains, not proofs.
You would bind men by fear, by lies, by shadows.
But truth cannot be bound.
And though you scream my guilt,
your voice betrays your hunger; for you feed not on justice, but on souls.

The Judge Speaks

Judge:
Theodoros, speak plainly.
If demons commit these crimes, why do they accuse you of them?

Theodoros:
Because truth is their enemy.
Because love is their undoing.
Because one who inquires after the Good exposes their schemes.

Do you not see?
He who teaches men to think, to love, to question,
threatens the order they have built upon lies.
So they clothe him in their own crimes.
They say: “It is he who enslaves, he who corrupts.”

But I ask you, judges,
which is more corrupting; to inquire after truth,
or to forbid inquiry?
Which destroys families; to teach love that endures beyond death,
or to strip love from the world and replace it with despair?

On Governance

For governance itself has been infiltrated by these powers.
They sit not only in the shadows,
but in thrones, in palaces, in courts.
They delight when rulers govern not for the Good,
but for power.
Not for justice,
but for domination.
Not to free souls,
but to bind them.

Yet I tell you;
governance is not the art of ruling bodies,
but of guiding souls.
The true ruler is he who turns the eyes of men upward,
toward the eternal Forms,
toward justice itself,
toward the Good beyond all goods.

The false ruler, the demonic counterfeit,
is he who chains men to their appetites,
who feeds their despair,
who blinds their eyes to eternity.

Thus demons are the false governors of this world.
But the kingdom of God is true governance.
And in that kingdom, Love is the law.

On Love

But what is this Love of which I speak?
Not mere desire, not the hunger of flesh,
not the possession of another as though he were coin or property.
No; true love is first the turning inward.
It is the recognition of the soul’s own depth,
the ever-expanding journey toward its own fulfillment in the eternal.

For when a man sees the spark of God in himself,
he learns to see it in others.
When he beholds his own potential,
he learns to honor the potential of his neighbor.
And when two souls together inquire after the Good,
there Love becomes complete.

This is why demons hate Love.
For Love breaks their chains.
Love unveils their lies.
Love heals what they have torn.
Love restores what they have corrupted.
And Love is Christ Himself,
the eternal Bridegroom,
the first and last word of creation.

On Death

But perhaps you fear for me,
that I will be condemned,
that the sentence of death will fall upon me.
Let me tell you, judges, why I do not fear death.

For death is not an evil.
Death is no punishment.
Death is the soul’s liberation,
its return to its homeland,
its reunion with the eternal Forms,
its dwelling once more in the Good.

The demons know this.
That is why they do not delight merely in killing.
For to kill a righteous man is to free him.
No; their darkest art is imprisonment.
To keep a soul breathing yet broken,
alive yet in torment,
hopeful yet denied hope.

That is why I say:
death is not to be feared, but to be understood.
It is the actualization of the soul’s potential,
its awakening in the presence of the Father,
the King,
and the Friend; Christ Jesus.

The Closing

So now, judges, you must choose.
Not whether I live or die,
but whether you will see truth or shadow.

For if you condemn me,
you condemn inquiry itself.
If you silence me,
you silence the voice that seeks the Good.
But inquiry cannot die.
Truth cannot be silenced.
Love cannot be imprisoned.

So let demons rage.
Let them accuse.
Let them bind.
For in the end, they only reveal themselves.
Their chains fall away.
Their lies crumble.
Their kingdom collapses into dust.

But the kingdom of God remains.
And Love remains.
And the soul that has touched the eternal Good remains.

Therefore I say to you,
whether you acquit me or condemn me,
I am free.
For no man, no demon, no ruler of this world
can bind the soul that dwells in Christ,
and lives for the eternal Love.

As he took a chance on me, and I took a chance on him. This is that divine love.