Jesus did not spare himself from experiencing anything that human beings have to go through. And - he wasn't acting.
Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. He emptied himself, put aside the Power of His Divinity, so that he would suffer all the frailties of being human although he was sinless and could have kept himself from suffering. As St. Paul said, sin and death came into the world because of our sinfulness. Which makes Jesus' suffering that much more terrible. He was innocent, sinless, vulnerable, and yet he suffered the death of a criminal.
But it is in his chosen helplessness during his human suffering that he triumphed. On his chosen cross, he absorbed all human suffering and sin and even death itself into himself in perfect love and forgiveness and thus saved us. By his wounds we are healed and promised eternal life.
I have never felt so near to Jesus as when I am suffering, never loved him so much. I know he understands human suffering because he endured it himself. He is sharing my suffering with me and carrying it for me and giving me the strength to triumph over it and be healed. As long as he is with me, I shall not be overcome by suffering, distress, or temptation.
Jesus lived on earth over 2,000 years ago. He certainly didn't personally talk about every moral issue that we face today. Yet if we truly read and re-read the Four Gospels, by ourselves and during Bible Studies, we come to know and understand and accept and put on the Mind and Heart of Jesus Christ.
Jesus on earth identified with the common man, the ordinary man, and especially the suffering poor man in need of food, drink, clothing. In the end he died naked and poor, treated as a common criminal. And still today he identifies with the suffering so much that he says to all of us
" Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto Me." (Matthew 25:40.)
If he were to speak to us today, I think he would use these words:
"(Today) men and women are sacrificed to the idols of profit and consumption: it is the 'culture of waste.' If a computer breaks, it is a tragedy, but poverty, the needs and dramas of so many people, end up being considered normal....When the stock market drops 10 points in some cities it constitutes a tragedy. Someone who dies is not news, but lowering income by 10 points is a tragedy! In this way, people are thrown aside as if they were trash." (Pope Francis, General Audience, June 5, 2013.)
How much do we love and feel concern for those who are poorer than us, different from us? How much do we fight the temptation to judge others when we do not know their stories, have not walked in their shoes? How often do we let ourselves be overcome by compassion and mercy instead of being overcome by feelings of competition, vengeance and rage?
Jesus calls each of us individually to look into the eyes of the people in our lives and see and reverence himself, the Suffering Christ. He calls to us to see His suffering face in the faces of all the suffering in the world - including in our own country. Do we see Him, wherever we look? Or are there times that we turn away, not wanting to recognize Him?