Charleston: Recovery and Compassion
“Those who have been broken, in mind, body or spirit, who have been humbled and hurt, but have made their way back, held on and kept going, sought forgiveness and found redemption, discovered a healing they never expected, to all those who understand this experience without the need for further words, I offer this recognition: you are the sisters and brothers of compassion, the ones who know what it feels like, the ones who are witnesses to life reclaimed. Be blessed in your recovery, for each one of you is a source of faith for so many, who see in you the answer to a prayer they ask for themselves.” Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook Meditation
So many spiritual writers continue to tell us this truth as does our own experience. We become healers of the suffering in this world because we also know the face and body of internal and external injury. This is the continual story of how Easter can follow Good Friday. Once we have experienced suffering, we can learn about, experience compassion, compassion shown to us by others who also know about wounds, as they were ministered to by others who also were wounded. This can be the cycle of compassion.
There is a choice, however. We daily live with those who live through their suffering by causing more pain to others, an “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. This is the life of fear and retaliation, hurting others before they can hurt us.
Perhaps these who are so fearful were ministered to by those who never knew compassion, so they only learned about inflicting more suffering.
Perhaps we can help break their cycle by compassion, hearing their story, hoping they will share how their woundedness began. This is what spiritual friends do.
We listen to each other’s story and look for sparks, compassion, the presence of God in our suffering and reminding each other that this presence is always, always there, there in people and places where we least expect it, the tears, the hug of a child, the nurse or physician or X-ray technologist who makes eye contact and holds our hand when they see our pain, the aging, crippled woman at the food pantry who tells us to have a blessed day. Our wounds can be openings for the presence of God, the great healer, in our life and the lives of others.
Joanna joannaseibert.com