The Deficencies of Christ

Extract

The following lines are offered with all reverence in an attempt at understanding some of the implications of S. Thomas’s teaching on the sufferings of our Lord, They are meant to suggest the apparent ineffectualness of the theologian’s doctrine in face of the bitter experience of the disciple.

You speak to me of the sufferings of Christ; you tell me to think of them in my pain; to bear my own, and’to offer them up with his. They are the penalty of my sins, and Christ's Passion has given them meaning and purpose, if only I accept them as he did for me. Yet what consolation is that to me, for his sufferings cannot compare with mine? You pretend the Passion was a sortof Epiphany : a manifestation of the realityof Christ’s Humanity. But Christ was not like us, not equal to us in all things ! A very human God would be a consolation and a help. Why was not Christ like us in all things: subject to suffering, pain, ignorance, temptation and sin? You have to draw the line because your Saviour was not merely man but God. It seems to me that the Incarnation has failed to reach me in my suffering, just at those points where I need it most—give me my comrade who is mere man and not this pale Sufferer!

You tell me to think of the bodily suffering of the Christ upon his Cross: the hanging body, the riven members, the wounds, the thorns, the burning thirst.