Cycle of Compassion

Last week Sr. Constance spoke at Theology on Tap in Washington D.C. The evening’s theme was joy and she was asked to tackle the challenging topic of how to find joy in suffering…

In 1984, after his brush with death at the hands of a would-be assassin and the multiple surgeries and physical pain that followed, John Paul II wrote this: “Suffering is present in our human world “to unleash love in the human person, that unselfish gift of one’s ‘I’ on behalf of other people, especially those who suffer.” I’m going to repeat that: Suffering is present to unleash love in the human person, that unselfish gift of one’s “I” on behalf of other people, especially those who suffer.

John Paul wrote that the world of human suffering calls for another world—the world of human love. “In a certain sense man owes to suffering that unselfish love which stirs in his heart and actions. The person who is a ‘neighbor’ cannot indifferently pass by the suffering of another…. He must ‘stop,’ ‘sympathize,’ just like the Samaritan of the Gospel parable” (S.D., n. 29). LISTEN TO HER TALK HERE.

Main source: littlesistersofthepoor.org

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