Why do you say it is too late to offer up something for your friend J? You can offer up the suffering you are going through now for God to bless her with His ultimate gift of attaining heaven one day, and for all of her intentions.

May God bless you and give you strength, peace and grace.
Catholic Mama | 02.04.08 - 12:41 pm | #

Beautiful and timely!
Christ wills to suffer also in our flesh. As we offer to Him our sufferings we become more united with Him. In His mercy and love, we recieve the fruits of our suffering even as we "donate" them to others. In our hearts Christ whispers, "I love you. Pass it on!"
God bless you with his strength and healing love. You're in my prayers.
freddy | 02.04.08 - 12:47 pm | #

Catholic Mama, methinks you read too quickly. I said it is _not_ too late! Thanks for your prayers just the same, and thanks to Freddy as well.
Dawn Eden | Homepage | 02.04.08 - 12:54 pm | #

This is a lovely contemplation that corresponds to the
theological concept of theandric action, the God-man (theos-andry)
aspect of the Incarnation. The question that theandry answers is, if
God is perfect and knows everything, and if Jesus is God, then how
could Jesus "learn" obedience from His chastisements, as Paul avers in
Hebrews? How can God die?

The answer is precisely what you lay out: the uniqueness of physical
experience.

God knows everything on a spiritual level, but He does not experience
the birth of a baby from the perspective of a woman because He is not a woman, never has been and never will be. He knows everything there
is to know about the experience, more than the woman does herself in
many ways, but the actual experience of it is not something He has
directly since that is not what He is.

So, Jesus learned obedience in the sense that He went through the
experience of teaching His body obedience. And what He experienced
will necessarily be different than what I do precisely because He is
God and I am not. Yet because He took on flesh, this God-experience
becomes properly man's experience as well, and vice versa.

Thus, even though God cannot die, we can truly say "God died on the cross"
because He experienced bodily death - an action that was theandric,
both divine and human.

And, of course, what is true of the God-man finds its correspondence
in every individual - each of our individual experiences are unique,
and therefore uniquely valuable. But, because we have the communion of
spiritual goods through Christ's self-offering on the Cross, these
unique experiences can also be shared.

Your entry very neatly and beautifully captures this entire concept.
Steve | Homepage | 02.04.08 - 3:14 pm | #

Dawn, this is so profound I think I will have to read it several times and meditate on it carefully to grasp all the implications. But I think you have hit on something powerful and beautiful here.
Niall Mor | Homepage | 02.04.08 - 5:26 pm | #

The two of us don't share a lot of beliefs, and I'm not even a faithful Catholic anymore, but I prayed for you several times during the period of your surgery. I feel like it's given me a sense of grace as I face a trial of my own.

I'm having surgery Thursday to remove a cyst in a sinus cavity that's apparently been pressing against my brain and possibly causing my horrible migraines. If you don't mind (and this isn't a tit-for-tat thing) please keep me in your prayers Thursday that this surgery will work and I'll be able to live a full and productive life again.
Dana | Homepage | 02.04.08 - 11:53 pm | #

Dana, sending prayers up for you now, as well as for the doctors and nurses who will tend to you. Thank you so much for your prayers. It makes me so happy to hear that you have received a sense of grace.
Dawn Eden | Homepage | 02.05.08 - 12:08 am | #

That was good Dawn. You should publish it elsewhere, it deserves to be read more widely.
Brian Killian | Homepage | 02.05.08 - 8:18 am | #