This week I tried to reflect on some challenges of life with a different perspective. Pain and suffering are not unique to a selective few. Pain, in one form or another, comes to all of us at one time or another. And in spite of our wishful thinking, being a Christian does not immunize us against that pain. In fact, some of the most faithful, most committed Christians I know of were those suffering the greatest. Last week a woman called me from her own bed, confined because of illness, to inquire about help for a friend who on Sunday lost her husband. Another, struggling with her own place in life, trying to assess what it has meant to live, closes a tearful conversation with inquiries about yet another member of the community.
Pain often causes us to become more self-focused, which can be a very important part of the healing process. Self-focused should not be confused with self-centered, which tends to lack any desire for recovery. The self-centered person is one who has lost their objectivity; everything revolves around themselves. The sound of the brook is the result of the water reaching out to the objects in its path, touching, and being touched by other than itself. So also, the sounds of life are filled with people reaching out to people; reaching beyond their own pain, not ignoring it but using it as the seeds of compassion which cause the heavens to rejoice. And all the heavens sing.
Father Bill Myrick
