Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Answer to Job

In today’s first reading, it is said of the Crucified Savior that
Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.
-- Hebrews 2:18

All of the Abrahamic religions present God as merciful. In the Incarnate God on the Cross, though, Christianity presents us with more than this, with an image of God in radical solidarity with our sufferings. Although his Gnostic thinking on it was gravely wrongheaded, Jung was felicitous when he dubbed the Crucifixion the “Answer to Job.” When we ask why God allows us to suffer, we should remember that He suffers with us: that he has taken all of our suffering up into His Glory, and that it is to Him Who feels our suffering more deeply than we feel it ourselves that we may look for help, and find total empathy and compassion.

No comments:

Post a Comment