The Key from Suffering

Wherever you are, find the crucifix and look at it. In all reality, it is not easy to stare at. It is even less easy to believe. It is impossible to understand, but “the work of salvation” of God is made “perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10). Today being Holy Thursday, we are going to enter into our Lord’s suffering. We are going to begin this journey with Him by first witnessing the institution of the Eucharist where Jesus offers His body and blood for us to eat and drink. If the Cross was hard to comprehend, the Eucharist offers an even greater challenge. What we are going to celebrate today with the Church, between Christ’s offering His body and His impending suffering, is often so difficult for the world to understand. It seems for so many that what the Church teaches is just too complicated. It is not surprising then to read from John 6:6 that “...many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." His teachings along with the dense theology of the Church and all the dogmas that exist feel as if we are being cornered into a world of scandal and confusion.

If the reader feels this way–confused, ignorant or even slightly frustrated with the whole thing, they are right to feel so. Christ’s Body, Blood and Cross is a cause of internal struggle, and yes, the whole thing is complicated, but because what they solve is also complicated. Taking from G.K Chesterton’s analogy of the key from his book “The Everlasting Man.” The key, in its unique and fantastic form, is a complicated object. The patterns, jagged edges, and zigzagging irregularities make it appear like an arbitrary item, but the key is far from being an abstraction. The key regardless of its shape and intricate arrangement will fit in a lock or it will not. The world, as Chesterton puts it, has fallen into a hole, but it is not just one hole but many. There is, as he said, an entire labyrinth filled with corners and even more holes to fall into it. The maze of this life is truly a challenge to navigate because the fallen world is truly a complicated place. Sin is not simple, and it fills the world with secrets, dark places and dangers. With sin, there is war for people’s souls, and between the chaos of it all, there seems to never be rest with so much suffering. Chesterton goes on to say that this is why religion is complicated, and if the faith of the Church “had faced the world only with the platitudes about peace and simplicity…it would not have had the faintest effect…” 

This is why the Church insists on theology and all its dogmas because they give the Church form. Continuing with the analogy from Chesterton. Imagine the complexity that exists in the world. All of its cultures, languages, traditions, history, religions and all the complexity of the human person in itself. With so many holes that exist, and not only the holes of today, but from antiquity as well, all of it is “like a hexagonal hole waiting for an equally hexagonal stopper.” The Church, in all its complexity, is that hexagonal stopper. It is the key formed by its theology and dogma that allow it to be able to fit perfectly into this fallen world. Yet, the Church is just the key. The Key Maker, the one who gives it its form is the one we will find offering His body and suffering on His Cross.

So I invite my reader once again to look at their crucifix and take a moment to realize that there exists one key and this key fits in all the holes that we find within. It does not matter that we understand everything. What matters is that we have faith, but not blind faith. I call everyone who is reading this to dive deeper into the theology of the Church. What you will find is not a labyrinth like one does with sin, but an ordered, straight path to the door that God has opened for us with His key. I pray that everyone comes to the table of our Lord today and celebrates the greatest mystery with faith, hope and love.  

Resources:

The Chesterton Collection, Everlasting Man, pg 156 

The Chesterton Collection, Everlasting Man, pg 157