{"id":21222,"date":"2022-04-08T10:56:19","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T14:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21222"},"modified":"2022-04-08T11:08:20","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T15:08:20","slug":"christ-suffers-with-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21222","title":{"rendered":"Christ Suffers with Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DHPC47AiBWE\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard\nreminds us that while we are invited to be in solidarity with the pain of\nothers, God carries all pain<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many people rightly question how there can be a good God\nor a just God in the presence of so much evil and suffering in the world\u2014about\nwhich God appears to do nothing. Exactly <em>how <\/em>is God loving and sustaining what\nGod created? That is our dilemma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I believe\u2014if I am to believe Jesus\u2014that God <\/strong><em><strong>is <\/strong><\/em><strong>suffering love. If we are created in God\u2019s image, and if there is so much suffering in the world, then God must also be suffering. How else can we understand the revelation of the cross and that the central Christian logo is a naked, bleeding, suffering man?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of the happiest and most peaceful people I know love\na crucified God who walks with crucified people, and thus <em>reveals and\nredeems their plight as his own<\/em>. For them, Jesus does not observe\nhuman suffering from a distance; he is somehow <em>in <\/em>human suffering,\nwith us and for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The suffering that we carry is our solidarity with the\none, universal longing of all humanity, and thus it can teach us great\ncompassion and patience with both ourselves and others. Some mystics even go so\nfar as to say that there is only one suffering; it is all the same, and it is\nall the suffering of God (see Colossians 1:24).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Episcopal priest Stephanie\nSpellers helps us understand how our one \u201centwined\u201d suffering spurs us to take\naction in solidarity: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Solidarity <\/strong><\/em><strong>is love crossing the borders drawn by self-centrism, in order to enter into the situation of the other, for the purpose of mutual relationship and struggle that heals us all and enacts God\u2019s beloved community.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Solidarity is the voice that finally comprehends: \u201cYou\nare not the same as me, but part of you lives in me. Your freedom and mine were\nalways inextricably entwined. Now I see it, and because of what I see, I choose\nto live differently. I will go there, with you, for your sake and for my own.\u201d.\n. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Latina theologian Ada Mar\u00eda Isasi-D\u00edaz [1943\u20132012] sums\nup solidarity as \u201cthe union of kindred persons\u201d who work together toward \u201cthe\nunfolding of the \u2018kin-dom\u2019 of God.\u201d [1] The bottom line is not who wins or\nloses the struggle, or even who secures enough allies to flip the power\ndynamic. Isasi-D\u00edaz wants us to see that the loving, sacrificial friendship at\nthe heart of solidarity is itself the antidote to sin and oppression.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Domination, control, and self-or group-centric behavior alienate and separate us from God, from each other, and from ourselves as beloved children of God. By contrast, embracing union with oppressed and despised peoples, placing any privilege you hold at the disposal of the movement to dismantle oppression and alienation and to restore balance and wholeness to human community<\/strong>\u2014<em>this <\/em>solidary love is how we most closely and faithfully follow Jesus and join him in beloved community. [2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Father Richard reminds us that while we are invited to be in solidarity with the pain of others, God carries all pain: Many people rightly question how there can be a good God or a just God in the presence of so much evil and suffering in the world\u2014about which God appears to do nothing. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21222"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21222"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21227,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21222\/revisions\/21227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}