Since God is love and God created the world as an act of love, and since God is personal, and personhood implies sharing – God does not remain indifferent to the sorrows of this fallen world. If I as a human being remain unaffected by another’s anguish, in what sense do I genuinely love him? Surely, then, God identifies himself with his creation in anguish.
It has been truly said that there was a cross in the heart of God before there was one planted outside Jerusalem; and though the cross of wood has been taken down, the cross in God’s heart still remains. It is the cross of pain and triumph- both together. and those who can believe this will find that joy is mingled with their cup of bitterness. They will share on a human level in the divine experience of victorious suffering.
- Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way, pp. 63-64
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