Pope...

So I was reading in book about the buddhist catholic dialogue... and kept getting references to the pope's book Crossing the Threshold of Hope... so I opened it up and started reading some page I had marked off at one time...

The page was surprisingly interesting, not for its help with my Buddhism project, but for its possible help with my Metaphysics class... it addressed the problem of evil... in a way I had not really connected before... it seems to make the bold, yet elegant claim that evil can not be understood aside from one small insignificant event in a desert... the way of the Cross... "The scandal of the Cross remains the key to the interpretation of the great mystery of suffering."

I normally think of the scandal of the Cross as simply the scandal of killing the incarnate God, or the scandal of people following a man who died on a cross... but I never considered that part of the scandal is that of "God's solidarity with man in his suffering"... the scandal of people saying "that's silly you think your God cares about YOU? You think your God cares about your suffering? Why would God answer the mystery of suffering that way??"

The scandal is:

Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,"and "A stone that will make people stumble, and a rock that will make them fall." 1 peter 2:8

For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.1 cor 1:22-25

The scandal is God entering human history, becoming one of us, embracing one of us as Emmanuel... and that God dying for us... but its not just that... its that IT MATTERS! It matters that he did this... despite disbelief... its the leap from "Okay, so what?" to "OH MY GOD, YOU CARE!" Its from the rationalism of the world, that leaves everything with out meaning, that leaves everything empty, that leaves everything dead and powerless... to this majestic understanding, that NOTHING is empty, nothing is dead, nothing is powerless or without meaning, because of CHRIST! Because of the incarnate God who died in his Desire to Justify himself to US...

US!


God did not have to die... He did not have to care, and if He did care, He most certainly did not have to die the death of a thief and murderer... but he DID... because of our strongheadedness, our egocentric love, our desire to strip everything of power... He did it, not for himself, but out of sheer OVERWHELMING AND GRATUITOUS LOVE... for us!...

us.





No one can ever deny the viscerally repugnant reaction to a whipped, nailed, bloodied and broken body...
hanging,
suffocating,
dying
on a cross.

No one can hear of this and not be haunted by God's Love.

No one.