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EDITORIAL...
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The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering...  Dear friends, Today, as promised, we're pleased to bring you a summary of, and commentary on, Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter on The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering — Salvifici Dolores. It was published in 1984 in the early years of John Paul II's pontificate and reputedly written partly out of his own response to the personal suffering he endured following the assassination attempt on his life by Mehmet Ali Agca in St Peter's Square in 1981. I found it a great comfort back in the early 1990s when I went through the worst of my own tribulations and I have found it interesting re-visiting this territory again in the last week and particularly in reading Pere's take on this work. Peregrinus, at the end of his summary has a comment where he thinks his summary is "a bit dry". I'm not so sure that it is Pere's summary which is "dry" as PJPII's theology which is a bit "dry". As I candidly admitted the other day, and I am sure I'd have been more reluctant to honestly admit this in the past, I have never ever been convinced of this language about Jesus dying for our sins. Sure, we say it as part of our acts of faith but what do these words really mean? I honestly have never read any commentary that has really induced me to take them to my own heart and own them in that sense of really understanding what they mean. I do believe, and understand, the insight that Jesus is a response to the sin and suffering that is found in our world. I think he does provide a "Way" by which it is wiped out. Calvary is certainly the most powerful symbol we have of that. Where I have the difficulty in my own thinking is with this belief that we are asked to take on board that the crucifixion of Jesus (i.e. that event way back in the year 33 AD) was some kind of "magician's act" — the "abracadabra act" that wiped sin off the face of the earth for all time. Self-evidently it wasn't because all of us still sin. All of us continue to observe much evil, suffering and sin in the world about us. Is not the instititutional propaganda we pump out in our creeds though one of this fairly simple and unsophisticated picture of Jesus suffering on the cross all those centuries ago because he was "sweating" on our sins? Is that not the "picture" which was attempting to be conveyed in Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ"? Is that not the "picture" one picks up from an analysis of what Pope John Paul II is writing in Salvifici Dolores? So what might be some better explanation of all of this stuff? I have honestly struggled with this for a long time — at least a decade and a half. It only began to make sense to me about four years ago when I began working with Amanda McKenna on the visualisation of her song, Take This Cup Away. That itself was written as reflection on her suffering in St John of God hospital where she was endeavouring to synthesize it through the experience Jesus went through in the Garden of Gesthemane. The outcome, at least for me, is that I no longer see Jesus, or God, as some kind of magician. Nor do I see the act of the Passion, or the Death, of Jesus Christ back in 33AD as some kind of magical acts — the, as it were, conjurer's act or the "abracadabra" that wiped out sin and suffering from our world. They are though powerful symbols of the Way through suffering and sin. But I honestly don't see Jesus wiping it out. He shows us – he models for us – how we wipe sin and suffering out of our lives. Can you see the two different takes I have of this whole picture? We are taught from a very young age never to question our priests, bishops or particularly the Pope. But is it not time to put up our hands when we feel their explanations are not clear or when we feel their explanations are loaded with a good measure of poppy cock and institutional propaganda as well as "the good oil" and "core insights"? As Peregrinus observes, this explanation of Pope John Paul on the Meaning of Human Suffering is heavy going. It really is not stuff that is accessible to even the person of average intellectual aptitude in the Western world let alone the hundreds of millions in the third world without access to the intellectual skills we've now been graced with through modern education in the first world. To bring this discussion of the past week or so to some point of crux point could I end with a question. Give me three paragraphs to the point where I can spell it out... I have endeavoured to approach priests, even bishops, seeking an explanation of this stuff. Their responses, to be quite frank, have been worse than useless. Somehow they seem actually afraid to answer our questions and they dismiss us saying things like "go off and read what Pope John Paul II said about it in Salvifici Dolores" but themselves do not endeavour to explain to us what Salvifici Dolores itself is endeavouring to say. (Instead, half the time they seem to be bolstering their own position by trying to convince themselves that they are "faithful" to the likes of Salvifici Dolores rather than themselves seeking to understand it and explicate it for the great unwashed of the modern spiritual deserts of suburbia.) I honestly feel alone today spiritually. Where are our pastors and spiritual guides? The explanation I have come up for for myself in all this is the following... Jesus "models" for us the way through suffering and sin. But he doesn't make the journey for us. He did make the journey to show us how to make it. But he doesn't pull any "abracadabra" tricks to take the sin and suffering out of our lives. We have to do that. And how do we do it? I believe we do it "by coming to know Jesus Christ intimately — to the point where we can think, and act, as Jesus Christ would think and act were he to be facing the same trials and tribulations that we are facing". To do that we have to develop an intimate understanding of the poetry of the Gospels — not the literalism of the Gospels but the poetry and the mythological language of Scripture which provides paradigmatic or "the big picture blue print" which enables us to navigate through any tribulation today even if it might be ten light years removed in the particulars of what Jesus went through two millennia ago. To do this does require training in abstract thinking — the ability that we try to educate young people in when we teach them how to use a road-map to navigate a real journey on the ground. The road map is not the journey itself but it is the blue print as to how we navigate the real journey. So, to me, that is the role played by Jesus in my life. He is the "blue print" or "road map". He's not a magician sitting up there waiting for my prayers and "abracadabras" that will unlock his ability to perform a miracle that necessitates me not having to do any hard work — or hard thinking! Now I honestly do not know if my understanding of these things is theologically correct or not. As far as I can see no priest, no bishop has the guts to tell me go take a great flying leap — or to quietly sit down and explain to me where my thinking might be flawed if it is flawed. I think most of us lay people today in the Western world feel a little like that. My question is this: what do you think of Pope John Paul II's explanation of the meaning of Human Suffering in Salvific Dolores? Be honest, take the time to read it — as Pere says it is an endeavour that is tough work but it is worth the investment of your time. When you've done that come back to our forum and tell us, and the Church, what you really think about the meaning of Sin and Suffering in this world? How do you deal with it in your own life? You never know, your words in this place a long, long time away from today may help some other poor bugger who is walking through their own hell. Tell us how you have walked through your personal hells. Did what Pope John Paul write help you or was there some other person who helped you find meaning and comfort? Here's the link that will take you to Peregrinus summary of the document and his commentary... PEREGRINUS...
 More on the meaning of suffering... Today Peregrinus provides a summary of Pope John Paul II's lengthy 1984 discourse on the meaning of Human Suffering — Salvifici Dolores. This Apostolic Letter was written relatively early in the pontificate of Pope John Paul and reputedly out of his own experiences of suffering following the attempt on his life in 1981 by an assassin in St Peter's Square. [more] Brian Coyne
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