On Suffering

I have been blessed to see many small miracles happening here as I attend to my elderly aunt and uncle.   They have made me see the tangible presence of God in all that is happening here.  One of these small miracles was receiving an email with the following message:

(Lourdes is a town in France that has a spring said to have healing power.
Many go there to try to find an answer to their suffering.)

Something is happening at  Lourdes.  And God wants to give us the eyes to see it and the ground to receive  it. What are all these crippled and handicapped people telling us? What is the  witness of all these nurses and life-bearers? It seems God wants us to live a  vulnerable life, a life dependent on other people, a life that is unafraid to  cry.

The little ones here are  unable to numb themselves. The numb do not notice. The sophisticated will not  suffer. The comfortable need not complain. But Jesus teaches us, in effect, how  to suffer graciously. He actually increases, it seems, our capacity for  holding sadness and pain. This might be the central message of the eight  Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12).

What kind of God is this?  Could it be a God who actually allows deformities, sickness, and handicaps so  we can all be bound together in a sisterhood of need and a brotherhood of  compassion? I do not know how else to understand it all and we surely see it  acted out right here. That is the primary miracle of Lourdes.

As I am walking this road with my aunt and uncle I am surrounded by the weakest, the most vulnerable.  I am glad for the compassion it is growing in my heart and mind.  I am glad for the bond it is growing in my relationships with others in need.

This is such a hard road...but it is not without blessing.