"St. Bernard observed: ‘God cannot suffer but He can suffer with’. God, who is Truth and Love in person, wanted to suffer for us and with us; He became man so that He could suffer with man, in a real way, in flesh and blood."

-Benedict XVI

"To every human suffering, therefore, there has entered One who shares suffering and endurance; in all suffering con-solatio is diffused, the consolation of God’s participating love so as to make the star of hope rise."

Without ceasing to be what he was, he assumed what he was not. The impassible Word, while remaining impassible as God, became passible man. The suffering of Christ is the suffering of God, not in virtue of his unchanging divinity, but in virtue of the humanity he assumed.

Yes, this involves some fine-tuned nuance, but it isn't theological nitpicking. It's the way we hold onto all that Scripture says about Christ, as interpreted by the Great Tradition.

We need and should look for no other comfort. What could be better than the God-Man suffering for us, in our place and on our behalf as our human representative and substitute?

Holy Week (as ever, but perhaps now more than ever) comes at an opportune time. God has chosen to be on the side of the suffering and dying, not by remaining aloof, but by entering into our death and killing it from the inside out.