SUFFERING
Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
“The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things, begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end the one who suffers the most.” Thomas Merton
“At the Last Judgment, I shall not be asked whether I was successful in my ascetic exercises. . Instead I shall be asked, Did I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners.” Mother Maria Skobtsova
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In the last week, my birthday week, I have thought a lot about suffering and death. Our society avoids the both subjects–everything is in the now, in the beauty and glamour of youth and glamour.
Personally I can not avoid either. Death is always near. I sat with a twenty five year old two weeks ago as he died, I saw a knife fight in the Park the other day–death is always present. Death hovers over the hundreds of people I see each week–it hovers in disease that is present, in the coolness of the weather, in the lack of food–death is present, it is real. And there is much suffering, every minute of every day–each one suffers in the cold, with the pain of hunger, and the fear of death. Life on the streets is a death watch.
Mother Maria Skobtsova summarizes for me what life is about, and why until my dying breath I will continue doing what I do–in sickness, and in health, with money, or no money, in pain or no pain:
“At the Last Judgment, I shall not be asked whether I was successful in my ascetic exercises. . Instead I shall be asked, Did I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners.” Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
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VIGIL AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY
35O MCALLISTER STREET–EARL WARREN SUPREME COURT BUILDING
12 NOON TODAY