When religion cannot find a meaning for human suffering,
human beings far too often become cynical, bitter, negative, and blaming.
Healthy religion, almost without realizing it, shows us what to do with our
pain, with the absurd, the tragic, the nonsensical, the unjust. If we do not
transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it. If we cannot find a way
to make our wounds into sacred wounds, we invariably give up on life and
humanity.
Richard
Rohr, Daily Blog
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faith is not about
avoiding pain
very few poets and saints
had easy lives
faith may, instead,
engage us more deeply with pain
we may participate in it
more profoundly
as, aware of the deep places within ourselves,
and awake to the precious souls around us,
we touch not only our own hurt
but that of others
in faith we see all the
misery and travail in this world
through the wounded heart
of that One
who dwells in us
who is love
Sacred Presence does not remove pain
or even lessen it
but
it does
transform it
and us
turning us from those who radiate bitterness and hate
into healers
wounded healers
but healers , nonetheless
____________________________________
As we look at auditoriums full of people transmitting hate
and feeding on pain and fear
as we deal each day with the absurd, the tragic, the
nonsensical, the unjust
we know how desperate our world is for people,
and especially for leaders,
who know how to find a meaning for human suffering,
and who do not slide into the pattern
of being cynical, bitter, negative, and blaming
