What a wonderful post. I really love that C.S. Lewis quote:

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, He speaks to us in our conscience, He shouts to us in our pain ..."
Defund Abortion Guy | Homepage | 08.18.07 - 8:05 am | #

I just read The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare three days ago and am now reading Orthodoxy in part because of your laudations.

Oddly enough last night I had a dream of you Dawn, dancing, an actor in a movie you wrote.
i_a_ | 08.18.07 - 8:40 am | #

I posted a while back on The Man Who Was Thursday and how one particular part of that book resonated with me. One character said he could not be reconciled with the peace of God. He said that he could forgive God for His anger but not His peace. A hurting heart can understand anger, but peace seems like an offense. This is something I struggle with.
Susan B. | Homepage | 08.18.07 - 10:10 am | #

Jesus is fully man, fully human, and all that that implies, including fully experiencing pain and feelings of fear and sadness. Indeed, if every sin ever committed is manifested in His wounds, then it is more pain and suffering than anyone could ever imagine.

But although Jesus is fully man, He is also united with the Father of Love -- as He calls us all to be, and as we all can be -- and so that fully human and excruciating pain and suffering are transformed and overcome, and therefore made bearable. The martyrs could truly smile in joy amidst the flames and beasts that tore at their bodies because they too were one with Him, and so their agonies were transformed by love.

Likewise, in more peaceful times, the person who consents to having themselves practically chopped in two and sewed back up again in order to donate a kidney to another person has their pain transformed by love into a kind of joy. More frequently, the high level of pain experienced by a mother giving birth is transformed by love and is thereby lessened.

Now, on the other hand, when there is no love involved, when seeks to go it alone and does not allow God in, then the pain and suffering are mixed with despair and thereby made all the worse and unbearable. Pain and suffering are seen as pointless and arbitrary and unjust and unique, which only exacerbates the problem. But if the one in despair only sees that they are not unique, that Jesus too suffered horrible pain, and if only that person converts that despair to hope and offers up the pain to Him in love -- willingly climbs up there on the cross with Him -- then, as with Him, that pain can be transformed and made a little more bearable, if not a little joyful.
Bender | Homepage | 08.18.07 - 1:00 pm | #

My understanding of the First Sorrowful Mystery (the agony in the garden) is that Jesus then suffered all the (emotional) pains humanity has experienced - sorrow, despair, anger, etc. - not that He despaired or was angry Himself, but that He felt all these things with us, and with all of us at once. I am not certain where I got this exegesis, and it may be a mistaken one, but it certainly suggests that He suffered worse than we do individually, in spite of the fact that He would have known that joy awaited Him on the other side of His pain.
alias clio | Homepage | 08.18.07 - 7:57 pm | #

aliao clio,

That is the best explanation I have ever heard about the agony in the garden. I must admit, I never thought of it that way before. Thank you for your insight.
Demisme | 08.19.07 - 9:11 am | #

What Denisme said -- thank you!
Dawn Eden | Homepage | 08.19.07 - 10:52 am | #

See also Mourner's Kaddish:

May His great Name grow exalted and sanctified in the world that He created as He willed.
May He give reign to His kingship in your lifetimes and in your days, and in the lifetimes of the entire Family of Israel, swiftly and soon. Now say: Amen.
May His great Name be blessed forever and ever. Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled,
mighty, upraised, and lauded be the Name of the Holy One. Blessed is He.
Beyond any blessing and song, praise and consolation that are uttered in the world. Now say: Amen
May there be abundant peace from Heaven and life upon us and upon all Israel. Now say: Amen
He Who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace, upon us and upon all Israel. Now say: Amen

It still blows me away that we praise G-d's name in the midst of tremendous suffering and in the face of injustice. More importantly, we praise G-d in community. We need everyone else to remind us of G-d's goodness and faithfulness when we're suffering.

May your community never fail to remind you.
AvoidingBillableHours | 08.20.07 - 7:48 am | #