7th May 2017
Healed by his wounds
As we go through life all of us whoever we are cannot avoid picking up some wounds. But carers and when I mention the word carers I think of those called to particular vocations. Mothers, Fathers, Religious Brothers and Sisters, Priests, Bishops, single people too in special ways – for carers are apt to pick up more wounds than others.
If anyone has truly loved another or committed themselves to a great cause, they have picked up wounds more than others. It is well to think on Christ! Think on what he has taught us – he has taught that suffering softens our hardened hearts and enables us to enter a world of suffering where all people live at some time. Jesus as our good shepherd, teaches that, in reaching out to others, we move out of our isolation into a world of shared suffering. In the simple act of showing care for others – there is healing.
Uniquely Jesus as good shepherd teaches that compassion is not learned without suffering. Unless you have suffered and wept you really don’t understand what compassion is, nor can you comfort someone who is suffering. Unless you have cried you can’t dry the tears of another, unless you have walked in darkness you can’t help wanderers find their way. But if you have suffered you can become a pathfinder for others.
Jesus as good shepherd teaches – that the wounds of others can help us cope with and recover from our own wounds. As good shepherd Jesus has shown us, it is by reaching out to others from our wounds that we ourselves are healed. Shared pain is like shared bread; it brings its participants closer to each other. Intimacy is the fruit that grows from touching each other’s wounds.
This weekend we pray for Bishop Patrick, our priests, religious brothers and sisters, all mothers and fathers, single people sharing in the wounds of others. If we can draw encouragement from the wounds of others how much more so from the wounds of Christ, THE GOOD SHEPHERD. His wounds help us recognise our own. The sacred, the precious wounds of Jesus are a source of consolation, courage and hope to us. Truly, by his wounds we are healed.
Peace, Joy, Love and healing to one and all
Dean Peter.
Safegarding Officer - Tim Morrison. Phone (03) 5144 4100
