“I could never myself believe in God, if it were
not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as
'God on the cross.' In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who
was i mmune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian
countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs
crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his
mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But
each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have
turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails
through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from
thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken
darkness. That is the God for me!
He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered
our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our
sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a
question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another
mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering.
'The cross of Christ ... is God’s only
self-justification in such a world” as ours....' 'The other gods were strong;
but thou wast weak; they rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our
wounds only God’s wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but thou alone.”
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