{"id":22598,"date":"2023-07-05T09:44:39","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T13:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22598"},"modified":"2023-07-05T09:48:49","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T13:48:49","slug":"22598","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22598","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"New Creation - Mac Powell | Lyrics\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z1Ygqog17vg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Divine Solidarity with Suffering<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard believes that Jesus\u2019 cross reveals God\u2019s solidarity with suffering:<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we try to live in solidarity with the pain of the world\u2014and don\u2019t spend our lives running from necessary suffering\u2014we will encounter various \u201ccrucifixions.\u201d Many say pain is physical discomfort, but <strong>suffering comes from our resistance, denial, and sense of injustice or wrongness about that pain<\/strong>. I know that is very true for me. This is the core meaning of suffering on one level or another, and we all learn it the hard way. <strong>Pain is the rent we pay for being human, it seems, but suffering is usually optional.\u00a0<em>The cross was Jesus\u2019 voluntary acceptance of undeserved suffering as an act of total solidarity with the pain of the world<\/em><\/strong><em>.<\/em>\u00a0Reflecting on this mystery of love can change our lives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think the acceptance of that invitation to solidarity with the larger pain of the world is what it means to be \u201ca Christian.\u201d It <strong>takes great inner freedom to be a follower of Jesus. His life is an option, a choice, a call, a vocation for us, and we are totally free to say yes or no or maybe. <\/strong>We do not have to do this to make God love us. That is already taken care of. We do it to love God back and to love what God loves and how God loves! <strong>We either are baptized \u201cinto his death\u201d and \u201cresurrection\u201d (Romans 6:3; Philippians 3:10\u201312), or Christianity is largely a mere belonging system, not a transformational syste<\/strong>m that will change the world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201ccrucified God\u201d as personified in Jesus revealed that <strong>God\u00a0<em>is always on the side of suffering <\/em><\/strong><em>wherever it is found<\/em>, including the wounded and dying troops on\u00a0<em>both<\/em>\u00a0sides in every kind of war, and both the victims and the predators of this world; frankly, this pleases very few people. <strong>Our resistance to suffering is an entire industry now, perhaps symbolized by the total power of the gun lobby and the permanent war economy in America, the fear of any profit sharing with the poor, or the need to be constantly entertained<\/strong>. Maybe that is why some have said that the foundational virtue underlying all others is courage (<em>cor-agere<\/em>, an action of the heart). It takes immense courage to walk in solidarity with the suffering of others, and even our own. [1]\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If God is somehow <strong>participating in human suffering, instead of just passively tolerating it and observing it, that changes everything\u2014at least for those who are willing to \u201cgaze\u201d contemplatively.<\/strong> All humble, suffering souls learn this from God, but the Christian Scriptures named it and revealed it publicly and dramatically in Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We<strong> can\u2019t do it alone at all, but only by a deep identification with the Crucified One and crucified humanity. Jesus then does it in us, through us, with us, and for us. Then we have become a \u201cnew creation\u201d<\/strong> (Galatians 6:15) and a very different kind of human being. [2]\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">[52] The Body<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> It is by the body that we come into contact with Nature, with our fellowmen, with all their revelations to us. It is <strong>through the body that we receive all the lessons of passion, of suffering, of love, of beauty, of science. <\/strong>It is through the body that we are both trained outward from ourselves, and driven inward into our deepest selves to find God. There is glory and might in this vital evanescence, this slow glacier like flow of clothing and revealing matter, this ever uptossed rainbow of tangible humanity. It is no less of God\u2019s making than the spirit that is clothed therein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lewis, C. S.. George MacDonald (pp. 28-29). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Divine Solidarity with Suffering Father Richard believes that Jesus\u2019 cross reveals God\u2019s solidarity with suffering:&nbsp;&nbsp; When we try to live in solidarity with the pain of the world\u2014and don\u2019t spend our lives running from necessary suffering\u2014we will encounter various \u201ccrucifixions.\u201d Many say pain is physical discomfort, but suffering comes from our resistance, denial, and sense [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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\/22598"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22598"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22602,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22598\/revisions\/22602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}