Readings
Acts 18: 9-18
John 16:20-23
Reflection
Franciscan, Richard Rohr suggests the most important question we can ask, is: ‘What do you do with your pain?’ We cannot live or love without pain and suffering, and in our present era in more wealthy countries, we have the means to reduce physical suffering, inconvenience and pain. Even ‘Panadol for kids’ is freely advertised today.
Despite our natural instinct to control pain, avoid it or understand it”, pain is a mystery. Where is it located? The phenomenon of phantom pain is an example of this mystery. How can a person with an amputated leg feel pain, ‘in my absent toes’? The mystery of pain is highlighted in childbirth, to which Jesus refers in today’s gospel. Entry to the world is painful for both mother and child, yet once achieved, the pain of anxiety and much of the memory of physical pain is forgotten.
The mystery of pain is extended by the claim of the poet Kahlil Gibran, that “the deeper sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” In his reflection on pain, Gibran wrote:
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break,
that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life
your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart,
even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
In today’s gospel Jesus tells us we will have pain. You will grieve! There is no ‘might’ in his advice. This is a process and it is the mystery we continue to celebrate in this Easter season, because as definite as the warning is, that “you will weak and mourn” so too is the promise that “your grief will be turned to joy”. The seed for joy is in the pain of grief. May we continue to live this mystery with true faith.
Brian Traynor CP has been involved in faith formation for many years especially in the form of parish missions and through the Passionist Family Group Movement. Brian is a member of the Passionist community at Holy Cross, Templestowe.