If one member suffers, all suffer together

In our ongoing Lenten reflection we are considering Pope Francis’ theme of combatting indifference as it relates to end-of-life issues. This week let’s look at the first of three Biblical texts proposed by our Holy Father:

‘If one member suffers, all suffer together’ (1 Cor 12:26)

“The love of God breaks through that fatal withdrawal into ourselves which is indifference. The Church offers us this love of God by her teaching and especially by her witness. But we can only bear witness to what we ourselves have experienced. Christians are those who let God clothe them with goodness and mercy, with Christ, so as to become, like Christ, servants of God and others. This is clearly seen in the liturgy of Holy Thursday, with its rite of the washing of feet. Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet, but he came to realize that Jesus does not wish to be just an example of how we should wash one another’s feet. Only those who have first allowed Jesus to wash their own feet can then offer this service to others. Only they have “a part” with him (Jn 13:8) and thus can serve others.”

If one member suffers, all suffer together. This is what compassion is all about. Compassion means “to suffer with.” We cannot “suffer with” another if we are indifferent. The group behind the push for the legalization of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in our country goes by the name Compassion and Choices, but this is the same group formerly known as the Hemlock Society. For these advocates of physician-assisted suicide, compassion does not mean “suffering with another” by accompanying the terminally ill and disabled in a holistic manner until the end, the natural end, the moment when God decides to take them to himself. No, for them compassion means eliminating suffering by eliminating the person him or herself. Ending pain and suffering by ending a life.

Quite different from this attitude, Saint John Paul II once wrote, “is the way of love and true mercy, which our common humanity calls for, and upon which faith in Christ the Redeemer, who died and rose again, sheds ever new light. The request which arises from the human heart in the supreme confrontation with suffering and death, especially when faced with the temptation to give up in utter desperation, is above all a request for companionship, sympathy and support in the time of trial. It is a plea for help to keep on hoping when all human hopes fail” (Evangelium Vitae).

This is authentic compassion — suffering and journeying with another. Our foundress, Saint Jeanne Jugan, never wrote about her experiences, but she lived out this compassion through her care of the elderly poor, and especially her practice of keeping constant vigil with the dying so that they were never alone. We continue this tradition today and it is truly moving to see how the room of a dying Resident becomes at the same time a sacred space of prayer and a place of intense interpersonal encounter. Family members, Little Sisters, staff members from all departments, volunteers, other Residents … all find profound meaning in “suffering with” the dying person until the moment when God calls them home. These are defining moments for our mission, and moments that bring out the best in each of us.

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