[obegeLype]

Dear Annick,
When I read your considerate post I thought of a writing of St Tikhon of Zadonsk: Confession & Thanksgiving to Christ, Son of God, The Saviour of the World. It is true that at times we as Orthodox almost fear to meditate upon how Christ has suffered for us; we can stress the Resurrection over His Crucifixion so much that our faith becomes cold & rational, for as St Isaac the Syrian has said: (this is not an exact quote)'do not dare to speak of your resurrection before you have gone onto your cross'. So it is true that thru such Holy Fathers as St Tikhon of Zadonsk and also St Simeon the New Theologian there is a sense in which we can profitably look upon the sufferings of Christ.
But my dear Annick, the Church first asks us to be sober in all things- yes,not cold or rational; but rather to be very careful about a kind of emotional response to Christ's sacrifice for us.
You speak well when you refer to the fact that "Jesus Christ is the Lamb that dies for our sins and gives us life." No true Christian should ever deny this. But then you say "Some movies show only Jesus on the Cross a few minutes without much blood..but that's not the reality and I guess everybody knows it." But actually the Gospel goes into little detail about Christ's sufferings on the Cross and nothing about blood. Here is where Frederica Matthews-Green's article is very useful; the reality we focus on in the Church is not the details of Christ's suffering but rather the fact of His love for us. Why is that? It is so easy to fall into an emotional and subjective state wherein we are speaking about Christ but in reality we are dwelling on our own feelings ABOUT Christ.
Here two dangers lie ahead; 1)subtly and without our quite realising it we fall into a state of emotional 'empathy or sympathy for Christ' which we mistake for a true spiritual life. 2)by relating to Christ emotionally, 'empathising with His sufferings' (in truth the Evangelists are almost silent on this issue because who could humanly know or understand His suffering?) we no longer see Him for what He is- the God-man Jesus Christ Who dies & rose for us- rather He becomes in our eyes the 'good man' Jesus.
This point is extremely important for us: Christ is not two different people; a Divine God Who rises for us and a 'Good Man' Who suffers for us. We will fall into delusion if we contemplate on Christ as if He has two different sides; as if in the West you meditate on the one while in the East we meditate on the other! Rather Christ is the One God-man Who both suffered & rose. His sufferings in fact are divine. Without this there could be no Resurrection- and without His Resurrection there could be no resurrection for us. Let me end with a passage of St Tikhon of Zadonsk that wonderfully expresses the loving repsonse of an Orthodox Christian: "You have accomplished a deed so sublime that my mind cannot grasp it! You, the Lord, the King of heaven & Earth, have come down from Heaven, and have given Yourself flesh of the Virgin Mother of God, and have suffered, have been crucified, have shed Your blood, for me, for the sake of Your servant! What a sublime, a sublime wonder!"
In the love of Christ- Fr Raphael