Like Father, Like Son: One and the Same In Pain

“God, the Father thinks, but he does not think as we do. We have a succession of thoughts. God, the Father has only one thought that He generated. We generate thoughts too, except that His was one that contains all knowledge. His thought, that Word, that became flesh is called a Son.  One did not pre-exist the other and is eternal.” – Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

A little child came home from catechism to an unbelieving father. “What did you learn in catechism today?” “That there are three Persons in God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and they are all eternal.” The father said, “Don’t be stupid. I am your father, you are my son. I existed a long time before you did.” The little boy said, “No, you didn’t. You didn’t begin to be a father, until I began to be a son.”

This concept of the Holy Trinity can best be explained by use of a triangle. A triangle is composed of three separate and distinct lines and angles. Yet, although independent, are all together as one triangle. In the Holy Trinity all are one thought generated by God. All happens at one time and in that instant from all eternity. That is why Jesus, when questioned by Caiaphas, was able to say: ” I and My Father are one and the same.” C.S. Lewis gives another wonderful description of this Holy Trinity in terms of a shared relationship. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the love that binds them. After all God is love.

It is written in the Holy Bible that Jesus sighed when he cured the lame, the lepers, the blind and those possessed by demons. When the hemorrhaging woman touched His robe, Jesus stopped and asked, “Who touched My robe?” For He said He felt energy flow out from Him. When He raised Lazarus from the dead He groaned. So Jesus, did suffer the things that we suffer, because He took on the particular symptoms of each in their healing. He also endured upon the cross, in our stead, not only physical pain but, as well, the enormous weight of humanity’s sinful vices that too often precede pain. There would be no maladies for mankind to suffer if not for Original Sin.

Now on the cross we must again recall what Jesus told Caiaphas; “I and My Father are one and the same.” The crucifixion of Christ was an act of deicide; the killing of God. So then at Calvary God the Father in the second person of the trinity, Christ, was on that cross. And in that endured the trial of crucifixion through the Son. So we can say that God felt pain. Because He was there in the person of Christ.

As Abraham in his readiness to sacrifice his son Isaac as a test of his obedience to God, so too, is God obedient unto Himself in the obedience of Jesus. No better example of obedience in the face of extreme trial is there than when Jesus’ hour had come. With His impending fate ahead He prayed the following in the Garden of Olives: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Through His human nature Jesus agonized as we all would when confronted with death. Yet God could not stay His own inevitable execution, because the purpose of the incarnation could not be fulfilled without the event of Calvary. God so loved the world that He was willing to humble Himself before His creatures by becoming one of them. And in so doing had given the world a second chance to know Him in the most intimate personal way. Through self-sacrifice for the remittance of the original sin of disobedience God is obedient to Himself and allows Himself to be hung upon the cross in the second person of Christ. This divine obedience to love negates the original disobedience to love. To free mankind from the wages of sin – death – God had to undergo His own wrath at the hands of His creatures whom He most loved.  “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” God being obedient to God died unto himself to set the stage for the Resurrection. And isn’t that the message of Jesus’ passion: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” – Matthew 16:25

Saint Thomas after being removed from his doubt in touching the wounds of the risen Christ proclaimed: “My Lord and my God.” And in that saying is resolved  for all who doubt, by the greatest doubter of all, any question that the Father and Son are One and the same.