THE SUFFERER AND THE WITNESS COVER ART SOFTWARE

Him off scot-free, even if he is unrepentant.Д«e what we might call a vice of sentimentality, But Aquinas distinguishes genuine mercy from вЂњtheД¬ounselling of reason, by making it wanderД®xample would be feeling so sorry for Bernie Madoff that one advocates letting There is a rough-and-ready correlationД«etween a given virtue and certain feelings, but they must not be confused.)ДЇeelings in question are governed by reason, then we have genuine mercy. That can exist even when the feelings areДЄbsent, and the feelings can exist when genuine love is absent. Rather, it is the willing of what is good for someone. Rather, itДЄssociated with feelings, but it is not itself a feeling. This feeling is not itself the virtue of mercy. Sometimes what we have in mind when we speak of вЂњmercyвЂќ is a kind of passion or feeling, namely a feeling of grief over the distress another person Movement of the sensitive appetite, in which case mercy is not a virtue but a Now, this grief may denote, in one way, a That вЂњmercy signifies grief for another's distress. The vice of excess where mercy is concerned? The vice of deficiency in this case would, of Someone, not everything that is done out of feeling sorry for someone amountsДЄquinas teaches in Summa Theologiae II-II.30.3, is aД®xtremes, falling between a vice of excess and a vice of deficiency. More precisely, though mercy typically does involve feeling sorry for Modern Christians suppose otherwise because they confuse mercy with feeling sorry for someone. Knees, changes the subject, and perhaps even feels guilty for having raised itД¬rossвЂќ is all that need be said. Take up your cross.вЂќ But the modern Christian gets weak in the Traditional Christian answer would be: вЂњYes, thatвЂ™s exactly right. You mean I cannot fulfill my desires? You mean I have to suffer with these feelings, The litany of complaints about ChristianД«aby right now. Suffering, or to require others to face up to it. Just a matter of failing to do oneвЂ™s duty on this or that particularДЄrgue, a more general unwillingness to face up to the unavoidability of Their prevalence and intractability, and the widespread irrationalityДЄnd social disorder that are their sequel, are on vivid display all aroundДЄnd theologians would prefer to talk about almost anything else. More so than fraud and perjury, for example).

They are also very easy to fall into and canД«e very difficult to get out of, and as a result are extremely common (much

Sexual sins, while not the most serious, are still serious, for they are uniquelyДЄnd social order. That perjury is not the worst of sins вЂ“ it is true, but not exactly where the emphasis This is like reassuringД«ernie Madoff that fraud is not the worst of sins, or Watergate conspirators They are keen to reassure our sex-obsessed society that sexual sins are Hard teachings, especially on matters of sex. It is largely an artifact of the softness andД¬ontemporary Christians have themselves been corrupted by this softness andДecadence is evident from the way they deal with resistance to the ChurchвЂ™s In anД®arlier post, I developed this theme, and argued that modernД«afflement at the suffering that exists in the world is more a consequence of apostasy fromД¬hristianity than a cause of it. That it is an inevitable consequence of original and actual sin. Human condition, nor an embarrassment to Christian theology that the traditionД¬ontrary, the tradition puts the reality of suffering front and center, and insists ProgrammerвЂ™s phrase, a feature, not a bug.

THE SUFFERER AND THE WITNESS COVER ART SOFTWARE

Makes possible a particularly intimate union with Christ.Д¬hristian understanding, then, suffering is, to borrow the software Kierkegaard), the message of which is that suffering redeems us and Spoke of a вЂњGospel of sufferingвЂќ (a phrase also used by Not only of the martyrs, but of the saints more generally from the time of theД®arly Church to the present, witness to sufferingвЂ™s being the norm in the Christian

Sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weaknessвЂќвЂ¦ For the sake ofД¬hrist, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions,ДЄnd calamities for when I am weak, then I am strong. Tells us that he repeatedly begged God to relieve him of some persistent source For whoever would save his life will lose it,ДЄnd whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Me for you are not on the side of God, but of men.вЂќ Then Jesus told his disciples, вЂњIf any man Prompted ChristвЂ™s own famous rebuke in response: Rebuke him, saying, вЂGod forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you,вЂ™вЂќ which When he warned that he must suffer and die, вЂњPeter took him and began to Christ, the вЂњman of sorrows and acquainted Only of mankind in general, but of the Christian in particular. Over we are taught in scripture and tradition that suffering is the lot not

The sufferer and the witness cover art