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I cannot understand how anyone, whether Catholic or of another Christian faith/denomination, can accept the torturous death of Jesus. I am well aware of the concept of Atonement; Jesus had to die so that we may be saved; Jesus being the sacrificial Lamb of God; and everything else that the Church teaches about the Death of Jesus, Crucifixion, Resurrection, etc. I am a 72-year-old man who was raised Catholic, went to Catholic elementary and high schools, and still attends Mass, and so on.
My question is:
How can people accept the way Jesus suffered and died without hating God?
As I said, I was raised Catholic and am very well-versed and knowledgeable about the Catholic religion, the Catholic faith, what Catholics believe, etc. But I am now Catholic only in name. I just cannot accept that Jesus had to die the way He did. I find it depressing to the extent that I literally cannot stand thinking about it or even looking at a crucifix, or a picture depicting Jesus praying, sweating blood in anguish to the Father in the Garden that this cup may pass . . .".
Yes, I am well aware that Jesus said, "But not my will, but your will be done." (Luke 22:42-44). But this is what makes me hate God so much. I know and understand all that the Church teaches. I just cannot understand how Catholics, or any Christians, can just accept what was done to Jesus. I really want to know how and why they don't hate God. I have come to view Him as a vicious and unbelievably cruel monster.
Michael
{ How can any Catholic or other Christian accept the torturous Suffering and Death of Jesus on the Cross, without hating God? }
Eric replied:
Michael,
I can hear your anger and frustration, and it's quite understandable.
I think what we have to first clear out of the way is a Calvinist Protestant understanding of the Atonement that is common, especially in the United States. This concept, which we must energetically reject, is that God the Father was angry with us, and so sent Jesus so he could pour out his wrath on him and he could take the punishments of Hell in our stead. I call this the "Divine Child Abuse Theory of Atonement", as if God the Father took it out on his son every time he was angry with his wife.
This is not what the Catholic Church teaches. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, our official teaching document, says,
"For our sake God made him to be sin".
.
.
603 Jesus did not experience reprobation as if he himself had sinned. (cf. John 8:46) But in the redeeming love that always united him to the Father, he assumed us in the state of our waywardness of sin, to the point that he could say in our name from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34; Psalm 22:2; cf. John 8:29) Having thus established him in solidarity with us sinners, God "did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all", so that we might be "reconciled to God by the death of his Son". (Romans 8:32; Romans 5:10)
This pernicious doctrine did rear its ugly head in the form of Jansenism in France, but was rejected.
First of all, God the Father does not have human emotions and cannot feel wrath; that's an anthropomorphism.
Second, even if he did, the Son is part of the Godhead, and the Godhead cannot pour wrath out on Itself.
Thirdly, to punish an innocent person for someone else's sins is fundamentally an injustice.
God the Father sent his Son to die at the hands of men as a sacrifice of love to manifest the depths of His love to man, making Himself vulnerable to the point of allowing Himself to be crucified. Remember it was not the Father who crucified Jesus; men did, and Jesus allowed it and offered it willingly as a way of making right, the disorder brought by our sins. So Jesus's sacrifice was an act of love, love of the Father and love of the Son, not of wrath and punishment.
That's why I don't hate God for it.
What do you think now?
Eric
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