Posted by The WORD in other words (2022) by Fr Jun Javines SVD – Divine Word College of San Jose Mindoro
Saturday 5th Week of Easter
Driving back to my mission station after a Sunday mass, I saw a victim from a vehicular accident in total pain being brought to the hospital. Cognizant of the need to offer any form of help, I pulled over. I can imagine the extreme pain of the victim upon seeing the affected part of the body wreaked by the accident.
I was then struck by what the mother whispered to her child as she tried all means to at least ease the pain, “My child, if I could only own your pain, I will be more than willing to embrace it just to see you liberated from it.”
The Gospel comes to life with this simple encounter. It is a reminder that despite the challenges life will bring, bear in mind that God suffered first, that God is our source of refuge, and that he is Emmanuel – always a God who is with us.
Still, some of us are tempted to ask, “But what is the use of a powerless, suffering God? How can we put all our hope and trust in such a God?
We can and we must because God is powerful – all-powerful – not with the power of force or coercion, but with the power of compassion and love. The oppressive power of brute force and violence can never be the basis of Christian hope. It is not God’s power, not God’s way of acting. (Hope in an Age of Despair. Albert Nolan. p. 10)
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