emphasize some of those things that ought to be firm points of assurance for Christians, and to probe a little around the edges of the deep mysteries. e. Above all, many of us have not adequately reflected on the cross. We have been used to thinking of the cross as the means of our salvation; we have not thought much about what it means to take up our cross and die daily, or to fill up the sufferings of Christ. For these and other reasons, we Christians may respond to pain and suffering in much the