Suffering, cont'd

Emily and I were debating a couple of weeks ago whether or not God and/or Christ chooses a cross for us to bear. The discussion has growth to include many other bloggers, including Sursum Corda, Amy Welborn, and various members of the Heart, Mind, Strength crew.

I'm not as firmly convinced as I was at the outset that Christ does not send just the right Cross to help us achieve salvation, but I'm still not convinced he does. Part of the problem in the wider debate seems to be what you think of as a cross, which is perhaps why the debate has broadened to the topic of "suffering." Emily had a good piece from Peter Kreeft yesterday, but in the end I think it falls short. The difference between us and the bear is, God has a means of explaining to us clearly what is going on, while the person in the analogy cannot under any circumstances make the bear understand. If the bear and the human were not strangers (if, for instance, the person were the bear's circus trainer) the bear might in fact trust the man.

At the end of the day, I think the broken world has enough suffering and crosses endemic to it that the role of Christ in sanctifying suffering is limited to pointing out the particular suffering that can be most helpful to us, rather than choosing it.