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SALT LAKE CITY — Local Catholics and other Christians will have a unique opportunity at an upcoming event to gain more understanding of the suffering that Christ underwent during his Passion.

The Utah Catholic Medical Association chapter and the newly formed Novus Medicus chapter for students and early-career medical professionals at the University of Utah are offering an April 15 presentation that will provide medical insight on the significance of Jesus’ pain during his Passion.

Dr. David Ng, an associate professor of pathology at the University of Utah, will speak on ‘The Pathophysiology of Jesus’ Crucifixion.” Ng has been working on this presentation on and off for the past seven years, he said.

“We intellectually know Jesus was crucified, but we don’t intellectually know what that is like,” he said. “We don’t have a frame of reference for what is being talked about in his Passion narratives, and yet, given our medical knowledge, given what we know, we can extrapolate how horrific this death was. And I think meditating upon it is challenging, just because, for most lay people, there’s no basis of comparison for this.”

In his presentation Ng will examine the historical use of crucifixion, its purpose and its effect on the body.  He will then consider the four Gospel versions of Christ’s Passion, including the medical phenomenon of his shedding tears of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane and the effect the subsequent abuse he suffered had on his body. Finally, he will review the various hypotheses put forward over the centuries regarding the actual cause or causes of the Savior’s death.

“The ancient Church Fathers had a ton of pious ideas that Jesus gave off his spirit pretty purposely, so the more modern medical texts right from the past century have posited ideas like asphyxiation, which is a common cause of death from crucifixion,” he said.

Although he will examine various theories on the causes of Christ’s death, Ng does not plan to draw any conclusions of his own, he said. “I want to just present the evidence of each of these presumed hypotheses, and I’ll leave it to the audience to decide. As a matter of fact and morals, it really doesn’t matter exactly how he died.”

CMA seeks to bring Catholic healthcare professionals and students together to form a rich environment of the faith in medicine. Organizers are hoping to grow the chapter.

WHAT: “The Pathophysiology of Jesus’ Crucifixion”

WHEN: Tuesday, April 15, 7-8:30 p.m.

WHERE: St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center, 170 S. University St., Salt Lake City

Free and open to the public.