Simone Weil’s Passion Mysticism: The Paradox of Chronic Pain and the Transformation of the Cross

Abstract

Simone Weil's theology is deeply connected to her experiences with chronic pain. Pain is paradoxical in that it is an essentially private phenomenon yet it simultaneously demands to be shared with another. Weil's life and thought exemplify both aspects of this paradox, demonstrating how her pain alienated her from her own body and from others, and how her thought found full expression as she attempted to share experiences with pain. Weil's experience of pain was transformed in her passion mysticism, the deep connection she felt with the crucified Christ. In this connection, the most unbearable aspect of her pain, the threat, which it presented to her very self through annihilation, was absorbed into the cross and transformed by God's love. While this did not necessarily diminish Weil's pain, the meaning it had for her as a person was transformed through an encounter with Christ crucified, in which she experienced God's suffering along with her.