ely and without reservation, holding nothing back--our resignation is transformed into faith and the world of which we despaired a short time before is vivified and we experience the very life and power of the Son of God--this is resurrection power. Thus, the passion of Christ is, or at least can be, a symbol of the essence of life--death and resurrection--rather than a symbol of our despair, reflecting our dissatisfaction with ourselves and with existence. The true Christian is one who does not flee life, imagining that existence is refuted by suffering and death, but rather bears with patience the problematic aspects of our existential experience, understanding that these aspects, too, constitute, in part, the conditions necessary to the highest expression of life. When we embrace this faith, we put off the old man, Adam, who risks eternal torment by virtue of his unfortunate preoccupation with the polar opposition of good and evil (and who experiences suffering as punishment for sin), and put on the mind of Christ, who experiences abundant life, beyond good and evil (whose suffering is redemptive). Like Paul, who admonishes us to "present our bodies a living sacrifice" (Rom. 12:1), we are "crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20) and we "fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ" (Col. 1:24). From this standpoint, we begin to see that [Each human being] represents a unique and valuable experiment on the part of nature . . . the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way and never again. That is why every [person's] story is important, eternal, sacred; that is why every [person] as long as [he or she] lives and fulfills the will of nature is wondrous and worthy of every consideration. In each individual the spirit has become flesh, in each [person] the creation suffers, within each one a redeemer is nailed to the cross. Each [person's] life represe...
