Saints Cosmas & Damian meet Jesus
on the Charles River Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic*
“One trip through a children’s ward and if your faith isn’t shaken,
you’re not the type who deserves any faith”
Peter De Vries (1959)
It is a big problem for those who choose or are chosen to be at the side of those who suffer. Whether it is Job’s friends, the families and congregation of Mother Emmanuel AME’s church or a child’s death, we want answers and responses that will bring justice into a world of injustice and suffering.
In 1961, Peter De Vries told a story of suffering in The Blood of the Lamb. Now following in that heritage, James KA Smith in his book, On the Road with Saint Augustine, brings us to a well traveled road. He creates conversations between the words and quests of Saint Augustine and the more current writings of Camus, Heidegger, Coates, and others who have formed our world of beliefs and actions.
This recent reading began when I decided to look at the Book of Job. Here I found a new translation recently published as well as a play, “The Debate” where in a university cafeteria we find a modern Job surrounded by his friends. It puts the “university” in its place!
What I was left with was “presence” is not enough. Presence is important, but insufficient, to face the suffering dilemma. We need a Grace that comes from above. We need a Cosmic response and for Christians that is found in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That response is still a mystery, but one that sustains us as we wrestle with the realities of suffering.
Thanks be to God for the witness of the Saints.
Marvin
References:
Duffin, J. (2013). Medical Saints. Oxford University Press.
De Vries, P.. (2005). The Blood of the Lamb: A Novel (New edition ed.). University Of Chicago Press. See foreword by Jeffrey Frank
Hage, M. L. (2013). Suffering.
Hage, M. L. (2014). The Big Why.
Hage, M. (2015). Well Being
Smith, J. K. A. (2019). On the Road with Saint Augustine. Brazos Press.
Greenstein, E. L. (2019). Job: A New Translation. Yale University Press.
THE DEBATE
Evans, Rachel Held. Inspired (2018) (p. 81). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
