All of us will get hurt. That is a given. However, and this was his challenge, how we handle that hurt, with either bitterness or forgiveness, will color the rest of our lives and determine what kind of person we will be. Fr. Rolheiser writes that suffering and humiliation will find us all and in full measure, but how we respond to them will determine our maturity level and what kind of person we are. Suffering and humiliation will either soften our hearts or harden our souls. There is no depth of soul without suffering. There is no depth of soul without suffering. Human experience has long ago taught us this. We attain depth primarily through suffering, especially through the kind of suffering that is also humiliating. If any of us were to ask ourselves the question: What has given me depth? What has opened me to deeper perception and deeper understanding? Almost invariably, the answer would be one of which we would be ashamed to speak: we were bullied as a child, we were abused in some way, something within our physical appearance makes us feel inferior, we speak with an accent, we are always somehow the outsider, we have a weight problem, we are socially awkward, the list goes on, but the truth is always the same: To the extent that we have depth we have also been humiliated, the two are inextricably connected. Humiliation makes us deep, but it can make us deep in very different ways: It can make us deep in understanding, empathy, and forgiveness, or it can make us deep in resentment, bitterness, and vengeance. As Jesus prepares to face his crucifixion and the shameful humiliation within it, he cringes before the challenge, and he asks God whether there is another way of getting to the depth of Easter Sunday without having to undergo the humiliation of Good Friday. The issue was not whether to die or not die. It was about how to die. Jesus’ choice was this: Do I die in bitterness or in love? Do I die in hardness of heart or softness of soul? Do I die in resentment or in forgiveness? We know which way he chose. His humiliation drove him to extreme depths, but these were depths of empathy, love, and forgiveness. And, ultimately, for all of us, as was the case with Jesus, we will have to face this choice on the ultimate playing field: In the face of our earthly diminishment and death, will we choose to let go and die with a cold heart or a warm soul?