Reader Larry B. asks this question:

Who suffers more: a perfect being in an imperfect world, an imperfect being in a perfect world, or an imperfect being in an imperfect world? 

Larry continues:

Three case studies come to mind. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the only other perfect being supposed to have walked the earth, and Jesus, being God, is (paradoxically) disqualified. All other people, certainly any alive today, can fulfill the role of an imperfect person living in an imperfect world. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent can represent the imperfect person in a perfect world. While it could be argued that it’s impossible for an imperfect person to exist in a perfect world (as the world would then be necessarily imperfect), one could still focus on that fleeting period, after the fall, as Adam and Eve are exiting Eden, in addition to the Serpent’s time spent there before.

Nothing is really mentioned in Mary’s childhood, but from the birth of Jesus onward hers was a life of hardship, exile, pain, and suffering until the sword pierced her heart with the death of her Son. Knowing Jesus’ perfection and, humility notwithstanding, her own, it must have been very frustrating to see her Son rebuked and hated. To see her perfect son stretched out upon the cross—lacerated, bloody, and ridiculed as He was, while all the while knowing He had come to save His executioners must have been an incapacitating agony, perhaps one that could only have been born by another perfect person. But, Mary because of her unceasing faith and purity, would have steadfastly known the necessity and purpose behind Jesus’ actions and likewise known what His and her fate had in store, which could have in some part alleviated her suffering—people don’t mind suffering as much if they know it is for something, something tangible, and salvation could not have been any closer to a living person than it was to Perfect Mary.

The average person normally experiences suffering in everyday life and would be strained to recognize or experience joy, pleasure, happiness etc. without suffering to compare it too. Man’s world is imperfect, essentially due to his own imperfection, and in conjunction with that old idiom “you made your bed; now sleep in it” he is acclimated, if not suited, to live in his imperfect surroundings. At this point suffering is almost a necessity for imperfect man, though also what he hopes to be saved from, but he does not tangibly know something better, as does the perfect person or an imperfect person in a perfect world, and really can’t have the same capacity to suffer as those others. The Serpent, if taken to be the devil, is of course the embodiment of self-inflicted torment, jealousy, and hatred, which by the Yoda axiom (that’s right, from Star Wars) leads to suffering—a suffering that is directly proportional in assumption. There isn’t likely any being that has suffered or will suffer as much as Satan, but Lucifer’s agony is not due to his surroundings. In the same way that Lucifer was in heaven while still having a potential (eventually realized) for imperfection, Adam and Eve existed in Eden. How they must have felt leaving the Garden, a combination of shame, guilt, and utter devastation, may have been exacerbated knowing the toil they would now have to undergo. These imperfect beings were in the unique position of personally knowing something better, like the perfect ones, and would have that added capacity to suffer over other imperfect beings who only know this imperfect world. The Adam and Eve archetype also lacked the hope and proof of salvation, which the perfect Mary did have, and so generally speaking should suffer most.

Laura writes:

I would not disqualify Jesus from the argument as He was Person as well as God. In both the case of Mary and Jesus, their suffering would have been greater than any endured by human beings, including the suffering of imperfect beings fleeing a perfect world without hope.

In the case of Mary, she was maternal perfection. Like all mothers, her power was in her ability to feel. The fact that she knew the world would be redeemed did not weaken this sorrow and love. If a child is in pain, the mother feels it even if she knows he will recover. She would not have cared for her own salvation, but only that of those she loved and her love was universal. Her tears for others continue, but they are not human tears.

Mary and Jesus would have not experienced the suffering of doubt, but the suffering of love. Additionally, Jesus would have suffered, in ways that are unimaginable to us, in taking human form. Imagine yourself as a beetle, or as Gregor Samsa’s cockroach in Kafka’s story.  Even if you knew it was temporary, the agony of living  as a lower being would be immeasurable. Also, it is the nature of higher beings, whether of higher intelligence or higher awareness, to be more alert and thus more sensitive to pain.

While Adam and Eve did not know of salvation, they did not know all the unhappiness that lay before them. Jesus knew all that lay before the world. Given the nature of His love, He experienced this suffering Himself and through this mysterious sacrifice lessened the suffering of imperfect beings in an imperfect world.

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