1987 – Discovering Joy Found through Suffering
Deacon Tom: In the home visitation ministry, Mary Jane and I discovered that when suffering is shared, hearts are healed and joy can be found amidst our pain. People we visited would reveal to us their suffering, and how it made them question God’s goodness. As Mary Jane and I would listen; we were more convinced of the importance of this Home Visitation Ministry; visiting people where they are and taking time to simply be present showing that we cared to hear what they had to tell us.
Mary Jane: And this gives us the opportunity to encourage those we visited to come to the Church for healing, for resources, for consolation. Our parish has a chapel open twenty fours a day seven days a week, as an invitation to those who want to be with God in prayer.
Deacon Tom: This is the true meaning of compassion; a sharing in suffering which is a mutually self-giving way of growing closer to God and with each other. Many of the homes we visited were full of people who mask their pain, either hiding from it or enduring their suffering alone. In witnessing the many ways people expressed their suffering, we found the best way to find joy is simply listening to their pain and being present. So many people just want someone to listen to them; this can bring healing. This way, God is given entry into their homes and His healing touch softens and opens many hearts to his graces.
Why God permits suffering is the most mysterious and heartfelt question ever uttered by humanity. The apostolic letter Salvifici Doloris (On the Meaning of Suffering) written by Pope Saint John Paul II, one who suffered greatly during his life, gives this question deep thought and is worth our contemplation.
What can be known, is like what Deacon Tom and Mary Jane experienced in those they ministered to; God sees you, God knows you, and God loves you.
This would seem only a platitude, unfeeling of our unique experience, if it were not for the reality that God came himself incarnated of a woman into our suffering: Jesus Christ. Every hurt, every wound we have caused and that we have received, Jesus willed to take upon himself so we can truly know God sees us, God knows us, God loves us.
