Scripture Psalm 42:2-3
As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.
My being thirsts for God, the living God.
When can I go and see the face of God?
Comment
Looking at Ourselves
Things in the world are not the way that they aught to be.
That is a way of saying that we human beings live on two levels –
Ø we live on the level of the way things are and
Ø a second level where we can envision/imagine/work towards a perfect way of life – perfect justice, perfect beauty, perfect truth, perfect harmony and so on.
So here we have a chasm between the way things are and the way things aught to be.
This is verifiable by looking within us. We don’t need theories or science.
We can just look within ourselves and we see we operate on these two levels.
Lets just call the first level the way things are – the human level
And lets call the way things aught to be – the divine level.
I want to suggest that in all the religions of the world that to go from the human level to the divine level you have got to build a ladder and make a supreme effort through codes, commandments, laws, dietary regulations –these may differ but the idea is the same. You climb up this ladder and as human beings we move rung by rung to the divine level.
What is unique about the Christian answer is that Christianity steps back and looks at this process and says this is a very impressive attempt but it is not going to work.
Why?
Because the chasm is between the way things are and the way things aught to be is too big.
If this gap is going to be closed, it has to be closed from the other side.
In other words, God has to descend or condescend to the human level and that is the only way to bridge this chasm.
This is the role of Christ helping to bridge this huge chasm between the way things are and the way things aught to be.
Source: D’Souza vs Loftus Debate - Does The Christian God Exist.mp3
MORE INFORMATION
First, there is the question of whether something exists or not. A thing can exist whether we know it or not.
Our argument first derives a major premise from the real world of nature: that nature makes no desire in vain.
Then it discovers something real in human nature—namely, human desire for something more than nature—which nature cannot explain, because nature cannot satisfy it.
Thus, the argument is based on observed facts in nature, both outer and inner.
The atheist Jean-Paul Sartre admitted that "there comes a time when one asks, even of Shakespeare, even of Beethoven, 'Is that all there is?'"
Source: Peter Kreeft
Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists.
A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food.
A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water.
Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex.
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
Source: C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity, Bk. III, chap. 10, "Hope"
QUOTE:
Celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking knows more about the universe than almost any other person ever to walk the planet, but some answers still escape even him.
In June 2010, when asked by ABC (USA) News' Diane Sawyer about the biggest mystery he'd like solved, he said,
"I want to know why the universe exists, why there is something greater than nothing."
****************************
Did you hear the one about the atheist who goes out fishing with his believer friend?
The atheist pulls up his net and finds a rock inscribed with the words: “I do not exist. Signed: God.”
The atheist turns to his friend: “What’d I tell you!”
One wants to be sympathetic to such a sincere cry of the heart. But one can’t help wondering: Is this all there is to life—pursuing a liberal social agenda while eating, drinking, and making merry?
What happens when we suffer, when people do us wrong, when we face persecution or attack for what we believe in, or for no reason at all?
What happens when we age and realize that this is all we’ve done with our lives?
The problem of the new atheism is the problem of the old atheism.
It amounts to the demand that God stand trial, that he justify his ways and means before a jury of his creatures.
It’s the protest of reason against the uncertainties and injustices of existence.
Reason tells us that God could have made the world differently—without giving us the possibility to do all the bad things we do to each other, without the possibility of all those things insurance companies used to call “acts of God.”
Reason causes us to wonder why God made us with free will, knowing what we would do with it. Why couldn’t his purposes be served by creating us with a little less freedom, or none at all?
And if it’s true that we’re made for heaven, why didn’t God put us there in the first place and let us skip this brief life of testing, pain, and heartache?
These are reasonable questions for which reason alone can give no answers.
What the new atheists forget is that a world without God is not a world without evil or innocent suffering.
It’s simply a world in which we face sufferings without hope, without any possibility of justice—in this life or in the next.
Atheists demands of the Bible things the Bible was never meant to provide—certitude, black and white answers, the absolutes of reason.
The Bible wasn’t meant to tell us why people starve in sub-Saharan Africa any more than it was meant to tell us about evolution or the “big bang.”
The Bible is written as the apostle John wrote—that we might believe in Christ and that by believing we might have life eternal.
It’s a book not only of reason, but of faith.
Faith helps us to see beyond this veil of tears, this gloomy Golgotha of pain and death.
It lets us see what angels longed to see, what the human eye has not seen and cannot see—that the suffering of this present time can’t be compared to the glory that will be revealed.
God’s love is stronger than evil, suffering, and death.
That’s the Bible’s true answer to our ultimate question.
Source: David Scott
Showing posts with label suffering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suffering. Show all posts
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Matthew Ch7:24-27 Build Your house on Rock
Deuteronomy 11:18.
“Take these words of mine into your heart and soul.”
Matthew Ch7:24-27.
"Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it."
Comment
Notice something too, the author of Deuteronomy warns against something too. Turning aside from the way I ordain for you today and following other god’s.
Now that is a good way to put it.
Where do you follow gods? That means of ultimate concern. You follow those at the level of your heart, at the level of your soul.
I mean you can seek after material success, fame and all that, but you should be seeking God at this deeper level.
Don’t run after false god’s because that will lead to a skewing of your soul. That will lead ultimately to a breaking of your heart.
Now we can find much the same thing, this summary statement, in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew Ch7:24-27.
Jesus says “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came and the winds blew and buffeted the house but it did not collapse.
Friends, this is the heart of it.
If you are rooted in God at the level of your heart and your soul you are following the intentions and commands of God.
Then what?
You can withstand anything.
Why?
Because you are linked at the very centre of your life to that very power that is here and now creating the cosmos.
That power which transcends all of space and time. You are linked to God and the storms will come, the floods will come and they will not touch you.
How about the one who does not take Jesus words to heart?
He will be like the fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came and the winds buffeted the house and it collapsed and it was completed ruined.
Now friends, notice something here.
The winds and floods come in both cases.
Jesus here is giving us the proper reading of Deuteronomy. It does not mean follow God’s command and the winds and floods will never come. No no.
Both the one who follows God’s command and the one who doesn’t experience the rain and the floods. That means all the trials and temptations and difficulties at the surface of your life. That isn’t the question here.
The question is. Where are you rooted?
If you are rooted in something other than God, then when those rains and winds and floods come you will collapse and if you are grounded in your heart in the commands of God you can stand and withstand anything.
I have known lots of people who have got it all together. They have got everything.
Look at that beautiful house but then there comes sickness, there comes loss, there comes failure, there comes the premature death of one of their children.
There comes the death of a friend. Whatever it is, all those normal winds and floods that bedevil us and that house can come crashing down.
So the question is, where do you stand?
How goes it with your heart?
On what precisely, is the whole of your life built?
On the commands of God, then you are built on rock.
On anything else, you are built on sand.
And from that everything else will flow.
And may God bless you.
Source: Father Robert Barron www.wordonfire.com
This reminds me of that famous quote by Saint Augustine
You have formed us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
“Take these words of mine into your heart and soul.”
Matthew Ch7:24-27.
"Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it."
Comment
Notice something too, the author of Deuteronomy warns against something too. Turning aside from the way I ordain for you today and following other god’s.
Now that is a good way to put it.
Where do you follow gods? That means of ultimate concern. You follow those at the level of your heart, at the level of your soul.
I mean you can seek after material success, fame and all that, but you should be seeking God at this deeper level.
Don’t run after false god’s because that will lead to a skewing of your soul. That will lead ultimately to a breaking of your heart.
Now we can find much the same thing, this summary statement, in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew Ch7:24-27.
Jesus says “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came and the winds blew and buffeted the house but it did not collapse.
Friends, this is the heart of it.
If you are rooted in God at the level of your heart and your soul you are following the intentions and commands of God.
Then what?
You can withstand anything.
Why?
Because you are linked at the very centre of your life to that very power that is here and now creating the cosmos.
That power which transcends all of space and time. You are linked to God and the storms will come, the floods will come and they will not touch you.
How about the one who does not take Jesus words to heart?
He will be like the fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came and the winds buffeted the house and it collapsed and it was completed ruined.
Now friends, notice something here.
The winds and floods come in both cases.
Jesus here is giving us the proper reading of Deuteronomy. It does not mean follow God’s command and the winds and floods will never come. No no.
Both the one who follows God’s command and the one who doesn’t experience the rain and the floods. That means all the trials and temptations and difficulties at the surface of your life. That isn’t the question here.
The question is. Where are you rooted?
If you are rooted in something other than God, then when those rains and winds and floods come you will collapse and if you are grounded in your heart in the commands of God you can stand and withstand anything.
I have known lots of people who have got it all together. They have got everything.
Look at that beautiful house but then there comes sickness, there comes loss, there comes failure, there comes the premature death of one of their children.
There comes the death of a friend. Whatever it is, all those normal winds and floods that bedevil us and that house can come crashing down.
So the question is, where do you stand?
How goes it with your heart?
On what precisely, is the whole of your life built?
On the commands of God, then you are built on rock.
On anything else, you are built on sand.
And from that everything else will flow.
And may God bless you.
Source: Father Robert Barron www.wordonfire.com
This reminds me of that famous quote by Saint Augustine
You have formed us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
Deuteronomy 11:26-28 Suffering and Blessing
Deuteronomy - (the second law) 11:26-28
"Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse:
the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day,
and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods which you have not known.
Comment
Some things in life are grey and indistinct and other things are pretty clear. This is one of those latter – follow the commands of God and you will be blessed.
Refuse to follow them you will be cursed.
Ok, clear!
But right away I can sense rising in you an objection.
“You know that sounds good but aren’t there an awful lot of good people, followers of God’s law, who in fact are kind of cursed, whose lives don’t go well, who fail and suffer. And aren’t there an awful lot of wicked people who despise God’s law and they seem to do pretty well. They seem to prosper.”
Point on point of fact, biblical Jews felt this objection. They wrestled with this very question.
The Book of Job is the most famous example of that wrestling. You know because Job was a good man and he knows it so he challenges God “Why am I suffering?”
The prophet Jeremiah complains famously “why, O Lord do the ways of the wicked prosper?”
That is a good question isn’t it?
Especially in light of what Moses says in Deuteronomy, it is a very good question.
You just told me that if I follow His laws I will be blessed and if I don’t follow them I will be cursed.
Well, sounds good, but it doesn’t play out in life.
Ok, what we have to do is to refine what Deuteronomy means and in so doing we will actually open up its true meaning.
Listen to what he says just prior to the blessing and curse in Deuteronomy 11:18.
“Take these words of mine into your heart and soul.”
That is the level we are at. The level of the heart and soul.
The blessing the author speaks of here has little or nothing to do with the surface of ones life.
And the same goes for the curse.
It doesn’t mean that if you follow God’s law you will always have good health, never experience set backs or failures, always be honoured and well thought of.
It doesn’t mean that. Because those things pertain to the relative surface of your life.
It doesn’t mean that ignoring God’s commands will necessarily conduce to failure, sickness and rejection etcetera. Those things are at the relative surface of one’s life.
The rhetoric here is properly religious.
Which is to say, it addresses that deepest level of the self.
The place that the Bible calls the heart and the soul.
What is that?
The heart or the soul is the centre of you.
The place where you are most authentically and deeply yourself.
The point of contact with God.
It is the energy that under girds and informs all the other areas of your life – physical, psychological, emotional, relational.
As such, it is at the same time it is the most important and the most elusive dimension of you.
Here the logic of Deuteronomy obtains.
If you follow God’s commands you will find blessing at that level of your life.
You will find what the Bible calls “peace”.
Shalom.
And Shalom can exist alongside of and in spite of the greatest kind of suffering.
And if you fail to follow God’s commands you will be cursed at that deepest level.
A curse that can co-exist with the greatest temporal success.
Does that make sense?
Someone’s got it all.
They’ve got a home, they’ve got pleasure, they’ve got honour, they’ve got power. They have got material things, big bank account.
You say ‘well that guy is blessed’
Well, at the relative surface of life.
But what’s at the level of his heart?
What is at the level of his soul?
That place where he is at rest most deeply by God?
I can tell you, and you know this too, there are loads of people who are blessed at the surface of life and are very cursed at the deep down level.
And someone can suffer every type of setback at the relative surface – no success, no money, no power, no esteem, no honour.
Yet, I know this and so do you, they can experience the deepest joy and peace at the level of the heart.
They have nothing and yet they are radiant with joy and that’s because they are following God’s command at this deepest level.
Rolling Stone did an interview with Sting and asked him “Is there anything, anything that you wish you had?”
and Sting replied “I have a beautiful wife, a lovely daughter, I have money and I have fame but there is still an emptiness.”
Now Sting, who in the world’s eyes has everything you could possibly imagine a person would want.
He is wealthy beyond comprehension.
He lives in a mansion in Ireland that is amazing.
He is known everywhere and has written some of the biggest hits in the world.
But he says there is still an emptiness.
What kind of emptiness could there possibly be if he has everything that the world says is necessary.
I have everything the world says is important but I am still empty.
Source: talk given by Tammy Evevard.
Franciscan Conference – Young Adults Conference June 2005
Source: Father Robert Barron www.wordonfire.com
"Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse:
the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day,
and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods which you have not known.
Comment
Some things in life are grey and indistinct and other things are pretty clear. This is one of those latter – follow the commands of God and you will be blessed.
Refuse to follow them you will be cursed.
Ok, clear!
But right away I can sense rising in you an objection.
“You know that sounds good but aren’t there an awful lot of good people, followers of God’s law, who in fact are kind of cursed, whose lives don’t go well, who fail and suffer. And aren’t there an awful lot of wicked people who despise God’s law and they seem to do pretty well. They seem to prosper.”
Point on point of fact, biblical Jews felt this objection. They wrestled with this very question.
The Book of Job is the most famous example of that wrestling. You know because Job was a good man and he knows it so he challenges God “Why am I suffering?”
The prophet Jeremiah complains famously “why, O Lord do the ways of the wicked prosper?”
That is a good question isn’t it?
Especially in light of what Moses says in Deuteronomy, it is a very good question.
You just told me that if I follow His laws I will be blessed and if I don’t follow them I will be cursed.
Well, sounds good, but it doesn’t play out in life.
Ok, what we have to do is to refine what Deuteronomy means and in so doing we will actually open up its true meaning.
Listen to what he says just prior to the blessing and curse in Deuteronomy 11:18.
“Take these words of mine into your heart and soul.”
That is the level we are at. The level of the heart and soul.
The blessing the author speaks of here has little or nothing to do with the surface of ones life.
And the same goes for the curse.
It doesn’t mean that if you follow God’s law you will always have good health, never experience set backs or failures, always be honoured and well thought of.
It doesn’t mean that. Because those things pertain to the relative surface of your life.
It doesn’t mean that ignoring God’s commands will necessarily conduce to failure, sickness and rejection etcetera. Those things are at the relative surface of one’s life.
The rhetoric here is properly religious.
Which is to say, it addresses that deepest level of the self.
The place that the Bible calls the heart and the soul.
What is that?
The heart or the soul is the centre of you.
The place where you are most authentically and deeply yourself.
The point of contact with God.
It is the energy that under girds and informs all the other areas of your life – physical, psychological, emotional, relational.
As such, it is at the same time it is the most important and the most elusive dimension of you.
Here the logic of Deuteronomy obtains.
If you follow God’s commands you will find blessing at that level of your life.
You will find what the Bible calls “peace”.
Shalom.
And Shalom can exist alongside of and in spite of the greatest kind of suffering.
And if you fail to follow God’s commands you will be cursed at that deepest level.
A curse that can co-exist with the greatest temporal success.
Does that make sense?
Someone’s got it all.
They’ve got a home, they’ve got pleasure, they’ve got honour, they’ve got power. They have got material things, big bank account.
You say ‘well that guy is blessed’
Well, at the relative surface of life.
But what’s at the level of his heart?
What is at the level of his soul?
That place where he is at rest most deeply by God?
I can tell you, and you know this too, there are loads of people who are blessed at the surface of life and are very cursed at the deep down level.
And someone can suffer every type of setback at the relative surface – no success, no money, no power, no esteem, no honour.
Yet, I know this and so do you, they can experience the deepest joy and peace at the level of the heart.
They have nothing and yet they are radiant with joy and that’s because they are following God’s command at this deepest level.
Rolling Stone did an interview with Sting and asked him “Is there anything, anything that you wish you had?”
and Sting replied “I have a beautiful wife, a lovely daughter, I have money and I have fame but there is still an emptiness.”
Now Sting, who in the world’s eyes has everything you could possibly imagine a person would want.
He is wealthy beyond comprehension.
He lives in a mansion in Ireland that is amazing.
He is known everywhere and has written some of the biggest hits in the world.
But he says there is still an emptiness.
What kind of emptiness could there possibly be if he has everything that the world says is necessary.
I have everything the world says is important but I am still empty.
Source: talk given by Tammy Evevard.
Franciscan Conference – Young Adults Conference June 2005
Source: Father Robert Barron www.wordonfire.com
2 Maccabees 6:12 Suffering
2 Maccabees 6:12
Now I urge those who read this book not to be depressed by such calamities, but to recognize that these punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline our people.
Comment
Job however challenges the truth of the principle that identifies suffering with punishment for sin. And he does this on the basis of his own opinion. For he is aware that he has not deserved such punishment, and in fact he speaks of the good that he has done during his life. In the end, God himself reproves Job's friends for their accusations and recognizes that Job is not guilty. His suffering is the suffering of someone who is innocent and it must be accepted as a mystery, which the individual is unable to penetrate completely by his own intelligence.
While it is true that suffering has a meaning as punishment, when it is connected with a fault, it is not true that all suffering is a consequence of a fault and has the nature of a punishment. The figure of the just man Job is a special proof of this in the Old Testament. Revelation, which is the word of God himself, with complete frankness presents the problem of the suffering of an innocent man: suffering without guilt. Job has not been punished, there was no reason for inflicting a punishment on him, even if he has been subjected to a grievous trial.
And if the Lord consents to test Job with suffering, he does it to demonstrate the latter's righteousness. The suffering has the nature of a test.
The Book of Job is not the last word on this subject in Revelation. In a certain way it is a foretelling of the Passion of Christ.
Thus the personal dimension of punishment is affirmed. According to this dimension, punishment has a meaning not only because it serves to repay the objective evil of the transgression with another evil, but first and foremost because it creates the possibility of rebuilding goodness in the subject who suffers.
This is an extremely important aspect of suffering. It is profoundly rooted in the entire Revelation of the Old and above all the New Covenant. Suffering must serve for conversion, that is, for the rebuilding of goodness in the subject, who can recognize the divine mercy in this call to repentance. The purpose of penance is to overcome evil, which under different forms lies dormant in man. Its purpose is also to strengthen goodness both in man himself and in his relationships with others and especially with God
But in order to perceive the true answer to the "why" of suffering, we must look to the revelation of divine love, the ultimate source of the meaning of everything that exists. Love is also the richest source of the meaning of suffering, which always remains a mystery: we are conscious of the insufficiency and inadequacy of our explanations. Christ causes us to enter into the mystery and to discover the "why" of suffering, as far as we are capable of grasping the sublimity of divine love.
Love is: also the fullest source of the answer to the question of the meaning of suffering. This answer has been given by God to man in the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Source: extract from the APOSTOLIC LETTER ON THE CHRISTIAN MEANING OF HUMAN SUFFERING - JOHN PAUL II
Now I urge those who read this book not to be depressed by such calamities, but to recognize that these punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline our people.
Comment
Job however challenges the truth of the principle that identifies suffering with punishment for sin. And he does this on the basis of his own opinion. For he is aware that he has not deserved such punishment, and in fact he speaks of the good that he has done during his life. In the end, God himself reproves Job's friends for their accusations and recognizes that Job is not guilty. His suffering is the suffering of someone who is innocent and it must be accepted as a mystery, which the individual is unable to penetrate completely by his own intelligence.
While it is true that suffering has a meaning as punishment, when it is connected with a fault, it is not true that all suffering is a consequence of a fault and has the nature of a punishment. The figure of the just man Job is a special proof of this in the Old Testament. Revelation, which is the word of God himself, with complete frankness presents the problem of the suffering of an innocent man: suffering without guilt. Job has not been punished, there was no reason for inflicting a punishment on him, even if he has been subjected to a grievous trial.
And if the Lord consents to test Job with suffering, he does it to demonstrate the latter's righteousness. The suffering has the nature of a test.
The Book of Job is not the last word on this subject in Revelation. In a certain way it is a foretelling of the Passion of Christ.
Thus the personal dimension of punishment is affirmed. According to this dimension, punishment has a meaning not only because it serves to repay the objective evil of the transgression with another evil, but first and foremost because it creates the possibility of rebuilding goodness in the subject who suffers.
This is an extremely important aspect of suffering. It is profoundly rooted in the entire Revelation of the Old and above all the New Covenant. Suffering must serve for conversion, that is, for the rebuilding of goodness in the subject, who can recognize the divine mercy in this call to repentance. The purpose of penance is to overcome evil, which under different forms lies dormant in man. Its purpose is also to strengthen goodness both in man himself and in his relationships with others and especially with God
But in order to perceive the true answer to the "why" of suffering, we must look to the revelation of divine love, the ultimate source of the meaning of everything that exists. Love is also the richest source of the meaning of suffering, which always remains a mystery: we are conscious of the insufficiency and inadequacy of our explanations. Christ causes us to enter into the mystery and to discover the "why" of suffering, as far as we are capable of grasping the sublimity of divine love.
Love is: also the fullest source of the answer to the question of the meaning of suffering. This answer has been given by God to man in the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Source: extract from the APOSTOLIC LETTER ON THE CHRISTIAN MEANING OF HUMAN SUFFERING - JOHN PAUL II
1 Corinthians 1:20-23 Suffering
1 Corinthians 1:20-23
Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
Comment
The two simple reactions to pain and loss:
One is a protest – This is outrageous – How dare God arranges this so that I have to suffer.
That protest is important. Man is asking for fulfilment.
I experience only the loss. It is not right. That is only the penultimate word.
The ultimate word ought to be an expression of hope.
Is there someone, somewhere who can take this pain, who can carry it, absorb it and somehow dissolve it in the fire of His love, which is much greater, which masters the pain. In Christ we have that.
Who God is, is precisely as Jesus shows Himself to be. He really is God. He really is man. Docetism was a heresy that was dealt with early on where they say God was pretending to be man.
We emphasise that we have to look to Christ and to Christ on the Cross to get to the core of this mystery that God is love. What does that Cross teach us?
One thing is clear is that if it hadn’t been for the Cross then the truth that God is love would remain unfounded, unconvincing.
How do you know God is love if He isn’t prepared to prove it?
To dramatise it by His own suffering love, His own willingness to descend into the brokenness of the human condition. Looking at this crucified God, you can’t help but explain this is what love means. Here is the embodiment of love.
Suffering with, entering deeply into my own pain.
Whatever descent I have – depression or pain or whatever, has already been included, contained within the infinite descent of Christ.
He blazes the trail through this forest of pain.
So I could never accost God and say “Look, you didn’t understand my pain and it somehow exceeded what you had to endure”
How does He taking His own pain involve my pain?
What He does not assume He will not redeem!
This is the ancient patristic refrain. If He assumes my life, my death then He includes both in His own life and death.
His humanity somehow encompasses mine. So by looking to Him, I have more than an example on how to suffer and die.
I have a source of efficacious grace which enables me to triumph, not just to endure, not just to simply submit but to become victorious in the face of suffering.
I have Easter.
Source: Regis Martin – “Franciscan University Presents”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
Comment
The two simple reactions to pain and loss:
One is a protest – This is outrageous – How dare God arranges this so that I have to suffer.
That protest is important. Man is asking for fulfilment.
I experience only the loss. It is not right. That is only the penultimate word.
The ultimate word ought to be an expression of hope.
Is there someone, somewhere who can take this pain, who can carry it, absorb it and somehow dissolve it in the fire of His love, which is much greater, which masters the pain. In Christ we have that.
Who God is, is precisely as Jesus shows Himself to be. He really is God. He really is man. Docetism was a heresy that was dealt with early on where they say God was pretending to be man.
We emphasise that we have to look to Christ and to Christ on the Cross to get to the core of this mystery that God is love. What does that Cross teach us?
One thing is clear is that if it hadn’t been for the Cross then the truth that God is love would remain unfounded, unconvincing.
How do you know God is love if He isn’t prepared to prove it?
To dramatise it by His own suffering love, His own willingness to descend into the brokenness of the human condition. Looking at this crucified God, you can’t help but explain this is what love means. Here is the embodiment of love.
Suffering with, entering deeply into my own pain.
Whatever descent I have – depression or pain or whatever, has already been included, contained within the infinite descent of Christ.
He blazes the trail through this forest of pain.
So I could never accost God and say “Look, you didn’t understand my pain and it somehow exceeded what you had to endure”
How does He taking His own pain involve my pain?
What He does not assume He will not redeem!
This is the ancient patristic refrain. If He assumes my life, my death then He includes both in His own life and death.
His humanity somehow encompasses mine. So by looking to Him, I have more than an example on how to suffer and die.
I have a source of efficacious grace which enables me to triumph, not just to endure, not just to simply submit but to become victorious in the face of suffering.
I have Easter.
Source: Regis Martin – “Franciscan University Presents”
Romans 5: 2-5 Suffering
Romans 5: 2-5
Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.
Comment
A very universal experience with respect to suffering especially when it is severe and hits at the root of your physical, and maybe psychological, integrity it tends to reveal your deepest loves and deepest hates.
I spoke with an oncology nurse a few years back and she explained that in the paediatric ward the parents would come in to see their children suffering and pretty much one of two things happen.
Either they are solidified in their love and their faith or they are broken apart and hatred comes out.
The cross, not just Christ, but the two next to Him reveal a lot about how we ought to react to suffering.
The bad thief on the cross reacts with a hatred, a rancour against God and other people.
Christ reacts to His suffering by recognising this is the Fathers will for good even though it is breaking Him ‘to the bone’.
The good thief recognises that he deserves it but Christ does not.
There is a lot to be revealed there but in suffering, our deepest loves or lack of love will be revealed if the sufferings are acute enough.
Source: Michael Sirilla – “Franciscan University Presents”
Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.
Comment
A very universal experience with respect to suffering especially when it is severe and hits at the root of your physical, and maybe psychological, integrity it tends to reveal your deepest loves and deepest hates.
I spoke with an oncology nurse a few years back and she explained that in the paediatric ward the parents would come in to see their children suffering and pretty much one of two things happen.
Either they are solidified in their love and their faith or they are broken apart and hatred comes out.
The cross, not just Christ, but the two next to Him reveal a lot about how we ought to react to suffering.
The bad thief on the cross reacts with a hatred, a rancour against God and other people.
Christ reacts to His suffering by recognising this is the Fathers will for good even though it is breaking Him ‘to the bone’.
The good thief recognises that he deserves it but Christ does not.
There is a lot to be revealed there but in suffering, our deepest loves or lack of love will be revealed if the sufferings are acute enough.
Source: Michael Sirilla – “Franciscan University Presents”
Romans 8:18 Suffering
Romans 8:18
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Reflection - No Suffering, No Love
God has so loved us that he gave himself up for us: This is the message of the Cross, 'mystery of death and of glory.'"
"The cross reminds us that there is no true love without suffering, there is no gift of life without pain,"
We have two treasures of the Christian faith: the Holy Spirit and the cross."
The Spirit opens human intelligence to horizons that surpass it and makes it understand the beauty and truth of God's love revealed, in fact, on the cross.
A love of which no one will be able to separate us, and that is experienced by giving one's life as Christ did.
Source: Pope Benedict XVI - General audience at the Vatican - SEPT. 17, 2008
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Reflection - No Suffering, No Love
God has so loved us that he gave himself up for us: This is the message of the Cross, 'mystery of death and of glory.'"
"The cross reminds us that there is no true love without suffering, there is no gift of life without pain,"
We have two treasures of the Christian faith: the Holy Spirit and the cross."
The Spirit opens human intelligence to horizons that surpass it and makes it understand the beauty and truth of God's love revealed, in fact, on the cross.
A love of which no one will be able to separate us, and that is experienced by giving one's life as Christ did.
Source: Pope Benedict XVI - General audience at the Vatican - SEPT. 17, 2008
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