God’s undying love for all of us

Is Jesus Still Suffering? Our Power over the Heart of Jesus
Michel Esparza
Scepter
2022
168 pages
ISBN: 978-1594174674

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It’s a great mystery, but God loves all of us so much despite our lack of correspondence or reciprocation. He is ever open to our turning away from sin, worldliness or greed with the mercy that is unfathomable to a worldly view. Evenly divided into two parts, “Knowing Christ” and “Co-Redeeming with Christ”, the author takes us through the stages of getting to know Christ, getting to understand His love for us and mercy towards us.

In today’s world, so many people are unaware of the fact that we have such a loving Father and Redeemer, whose love for us is so extraordinary that it deserves far far more of a response from us than most of us will ever give.

With the help of ideas from recent Popes, saints such as St Teresa of Avila and St Josemaría Escrivá and various other sources, he guides us gently towards friendship with Christ understanding that as perfect man, he has a human heart which is hurting because of all our sins.

But to understand this, we must get to know Jesus and for this to happen prayer is essential. Chapter Four deals with this beautifully. He quotes among others, St Josemaría Escrivá’s The Way on the sort of things to talk to our friend Jesus about (joys, sorrows, daily worries, weaknesses etc) and Saint Teresa of Kolkata who emphasises the absolute necessity of such intimate contact with Jesus to her sisters as follows:

Never give up this daily intimate contact with Jesus as the real living person – not just the idea. How can we last even one day without hearing Jesus say “I love you” – impossible. Our soul needs that as much as the body needs to breathe the air.

Part Two of the book is a challenge to us all to co-redeem with Christ, to complicate our lives out of love for the God who made us and whose son Jesus suffered and died to make it possible to have his friendship restored. The dominant culture of today tells us to look after ourselves to enjoy the goods of the world without reference to any Creator or Redeemer. Yet we only have to look at the horrible crimes of the twentieth century where millions suffered and died under the Nazis, under Stalin and the Khmer Rouge and even crimes against humanity being committed in this twenty-first century to know that so much redemption is needed.

The author dwells at some length on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which again emphasises the tenderness with which Jesus concerns himself for all of us, but gets so little in return. He also dwells at some length on the importance of the Mass which gives us such an opportunity to get up close and personal with Jesus, though for many of us, the Mass is something we just day dream our way through.

Is Jesus still suffering? As long as we sin Jesus in his human nature will suffer as he wants to shed his bountiful mercy on all of us.