“The ineffable union of the human nature and the divine, whereby God suffers and humanity descends from heaven with the divine, expresses the most excellent communication according to the exchange of properties which naturally belong to each nature of Christ.”
Maximus the Confessor, 7th century
“My suffering is in God, and my suffering is God . . . My suffering is God, and therefore is not really mine . . . God assumed me totally . . . In Christ there was so great a union of the Word with flesh that he communicated his own properties to it, so that God may be said to suffer and humanity is the creator of heaven.”
Meister Eckhart, 14th century
Resurrection doesn't mean that suffering and death are suddenly done away with. Rather, they are transformed in our union with the Great Mystery - in God. Because of our union with the Divine - embodied par excellence in Jesus, who then mirrors our own union and sacredness back to us - divinity and humanity interpenetrate and exchange places. Thus, when we suffer, it is actually God who is suffering within us. And when God creates the world anew, it is accomplished through us!
Photo: Pasqueflowers and a bee, with Greyrock in the distance, Roosevelt National Forest, CO, March 31, 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment