The idea that we are persuading ourselves seems problematic if we want to hold to the claim that something is objectively true. Is faith a gift or something closer to an act of self-hypnosis?
It strikes me that neither Christ nor the disciples had to “persuade themselves” that God spoke after Jesus’ baptism. Nor did Christ “persuade himself” that angels consoled him in the garden.
Did Peter have to persuade himself that Christ walked on water or did Thomas persuade himself that there were holes in Christ’s hands?
I believe you understand that
“we ought to persuade ourselves” is not literal, but rather a figure of speech, like
“You ought to persuade yourself that if Jack were here today he would have done such and such because this is what Jack did when he was here.” In other words, it’s not so much
‘persuading’ but more
‘reminding’ yourself.
That hardly resolves it. I can look at the tomb of the unknown soldier and reflect on the brave souls who died for the sake of our collective freedom, but it hardly follows that those soldiers gave any particular thought to ME.
True, However, I believe the difference is that Christ was fully God and at the same time fully Man, He had two natures, fully divine and fully man, if He only had a human nature, I would agree with you, but rather it was His Divine nature that could see the past, present and future (you) and took on the weight of all of our sins (past, present and future) in the Garden of Gethsemane and then suffered unto death for us.
Some of us have prayed to the crucifix for thousands and thousands of days and never once has it spoken a single word of consolation, nor blinked, nor wept, not even rustled its garment.
I believe the looking at the Crucifix is to remind you of Christ’s Passion, to meditate on those powerful truths contained therein, however, if we have never studied or understood Christ’s Passion, than what is there to be reminded of but something which we don’t understand?
I believe these two book will help you greatly -
The Passion -
loveandmercy.org/Eng-TP-Reg.pdf
(Roman Catholic Imprimatur)
The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Anne Catherine Emmerich -
jesus-passion.com/DOLOROUS_PASSION_OF_OUR_LORD_JESUS_CHRIST.htm
(Roman Catholic Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat)
How would talking to the Lincoln monument, to give another example, do a single thing to make me feel like Abe cared one whit about MY well-being?
It wouldn’t I believe, as it wouldn’t be about *‘Talking to the Lincoln Monument’ * (that would be fruitless as it’s talking to carved stone) it would be
‘Reflecting on the Life of Lincoln, reminding ourselves of the strength and passion to stand up for the right when everyone else was pushing for the wrong’
I don’t believe Lincoln at the time would have ever dreamed that he would have had a monument built after him, nor would he have ever imagined the fruits with which has been produced from his life.
I hope this has helped.
God Bless
Thank you for reading
Josh
No one is condemned for ignorance. In fact God condemns no one. Those who reject Him condemn themselves.