Him off scot-free, even if he is unrepentant.īe what we might call a vice of sentimentality, But Aquinas distinguishes genuine mercy from “theĬounselling of reason, by making it wanderĮxample would be feeling so sorry for Bernie Madoff that one advocates letting There is a rough-and-ready correlationīetween a given virtue and certain feelings, but they must not be confused.)įeelings in question are governed by reason, then we have genuine mercy. That can exist even when the feelings areĪbsent, and the feelings can exist when genuine love is absent. Rather, it is the willing of what is good for someone. Rather, itĪssociated 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 “mercy” 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 “mercy 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 amountsĪquinas teaches in Summa Theologiae II-II.30.3, is aĮxtremes, 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 itĬross” is all that need be said. Take up your cross.” But the modern Christian gets weak in the
Traditional Christian answer would be: “Yes, that’s exactly right. You mean I cannot fulfill my desires? You mean I have to suffer with these feelings, The litany of complaints about Christianīaby right now. Suffering, or to require others to face up to it. Just a matter of failing to do one’s duty on this or that particularĪrgue, a more general unwillingness to face up to the unavoidability of Their prevalence and intractability, and the widespread irrationalityĪnd social disorder that are their sequel, are on vivid display all aroundĪnd 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 canīe 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 uniquelyĪnd social order. That perjury is not the worst of sins – it is true, but not exactly where the emphasis This is like reassuringīernie 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 andĬontemporary Christians have themselves been corrupted by this softness andĭecadence is evident from the way they deal with resistance to the Church’s In anĮarlier post, I developed this theme, and argued that modernīafflement at the suffering that exists in the world is more a consequence of apostasy fromĬhristianity 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 traditionĬontrary, the tradition puts the reality of suffering front and center, and insists Programmer’s phrase, a feature, not a bug.
#THE SUFFERER AND THE WITNESS COVER ART SOFTWARE#
Makes possible a particularly intimate union with Christ.Ĭhristian understanding, then, suffering is, to borrow the software Kierkegaard), the message of which is that suffering redeems us and Spoke of a “Gospel of suffering” (a phrase also used by
Not only of the martyrs, but of the saints more generally from the time of theĮarly Church to the present, witness to suffering’s being the norm in the Christian Sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”… For the sake ofĬhrist, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions,Īnd 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,Īnd 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.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any man Prompted Christ’s own famous rebuke in response: Rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you,’” which When he warned that he must suffer and die, “Peter took him and began to Christ, the “man 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
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