April 11, 2025 // Diocese

Norwegian Bishop Reflects on Healing Through the Wounds of Christ

Clare Hildebrandt

Reporter

At Notre Dame, Bishop Erik Varden Speaks on ‘Living with Wounds: The Passion in Theology and in Our Lives’

“Christ’s wounds open up another dimension – a dimension that enables us to lament without suffocating in our lamentation,” Norwegian Bishop Erik Varden told an audience gathered at the University of Notre Dame on Wednesday, April 2. “It allows us to lament without yielding to rage and brings us to the defining mark of the Christian faith: compassion,” he said.

Bishop Varden, a Trappist monk, came to South Bend to present his thoughts on the theology of wounds in light of the Crucifixion. Countless students from South Bend’s tri-campus – Notre Dame, Holy Cross College, and Saint Mary’s College – many of whom are studying theology, attended the lecture.

Bishop Rhoades introduced Bishop Varden to the crowd, citing his book, “Healing Wounds,” as his own Lenten devotional read.

“Bishop Varden is a monk and is in much demand as a preacher, lecturer, and scholar. He was a professor of Syriac language, monastic history, and Christian anthropology at the Pontifical University in Rome.”

“A lot of our priests and bishops are reading his books,” Bishop Rhoades said. “They were very happy to hear he would be here in the diocese. I’m reading his book now,” Bishop Rhoades said.      

Bishop Varden’s presentation began unconventionally. Instead of simply introducing the topic, the Norwegian bishop played a song from a popular pop artist – “Camden” by Gracie Abrams, who is “a young woman who has apparently everything going for her. She is widely successful, beautiful, and popular, but when she starts singing, you hear a song about grief. There is a piercing sadness in the song that borders on and touches despair,” he said.

“Thousands were singing along at this concert. All of them sang along. An entire generation sang along. This says something,” Bishop Varden said, adding that the moment added “a peculiar quality to the grieving mood of our own time. We can’t dismiss this as a superficial cultivation of desolation.”

There is a cry of woundedness in both the young and the old, Bishop Varden said, and despite today’s culture lending various superficial solutions, it is Christ’s crucifixion that redeems and makes sense of suffering.

“Christ’s crucifixion enables human flourishing and a source of life,” said Bishop Varden, who cited Christ’s encounter with Thomas after the Resurrection as a sign of this life-giving quality. It is only through His wounds that Thomas believes.

“The Gospel accounts show Christ still carrying his wounds after resurrection, and with the encounter with Thomas, even leading to enlightenment and healing for others.”

Bishop Varden elaborated: “Wounds can be healed and can be sources of healing. As we see in so many high medieval representations of Christ, the blood marks of hands, feet, and side are represented as flowers as the flourishing of a new creation.”

The Crucifixion also disproves other fallacies in regard to healing in society today, according to Bishop Varden. 

“Meditation on Christ’s wounds is more than just devout exercise – constructive revolt against serial fallacies,” he said. “It is a revolt against the political fallacy that the state should be run in view of human perfectibility. That is a myth. It is a revolt against the belief that good health defines if a life is worth living or not worth living. It is a revolt against the cultural fallacy that treats wounds as a fatal and deterministic power. It is a revolt against the psychological fallacy that leads to despair. It goes against that insidious voice that we hear in our heads regarding our own intimate wounds. Most of us will know it: ‘This will never get better,’” he continued.

Christ’s suffering ushers in a new reality, one in which compassion rules as a worldview.

“Compassion is not a feeling, not just sentiment, but a category of epistemology – a way of understanding the universe and understanding self,” he said.

“Christ’s passion presents the real possibility of healing,” Bishop Varden said. “His wounds are not done away with, and instead, the scars remain. But they become sources of life and, thus, are rendered glorious.”

Bishop Varden’s full presentation is available to view on the McGrath Institute for Church Life’s YouTube page.

Clare Hildebrandt is a staff writer for Today’s Catholic.