AN ACHING HEART

Last night I helped with confessions in Perth Amboy, NJ, and was particularly moved by a penitent who could not stop crying. I was reminded of two women in the Gospels: the one who washed Our Lord’s feet with her tears, and the one about to be stoned to death for her sins. In both cases, the two women were embraced by Jesus’ compassion. He felt their pain…their fear…their aching heart. I tried my best to do likewise.

With respect to the story about the adulteress, I remember years ago asking third-graders at St. Paul’s in Chicago what Jesus wrote on the ground with his finger while being put to the test about how to deal with this sinner. Their response revealed a holy wisdom beyond their years:

Don’t cry.
Don’t be afraid.
I won’t let them hurt you.
I’m your friend.
I love you.

As the saying goes, “Out of the mouths of babes.”

Each weekend I travel to raise funds for the poor, but most especially to open hearts…by helping those in the pews feel the suffering of our poor bothers and sisters…to awaken them perhaps from a life of comfort that can often make us blind and numb to the harsh reality of the poor.

Sometimes those in the pews are also suffering, as was the case this past weekend. I was at St. Anthony’s in Oceanside, NY, for a mission on behalf of Food for the Poor, where hurricane winds and torrential rain knocked down many trees and power lines, and caused havoc. Most were without power Saturday night for a time…some still in the dark and cold on Sunday.

I asked at each of the eight Masses on Sunday how many had lost power. A number of hands went up. “How many are still without power?” A few hands were raised. I said, “I have been to places where they are without lights not for one day or one week or one month or one year. They have never had electricity.” I asked, “How many of you also lost water?” No hands. I shared that I have seen communities where folks do not have running water…no luxury of washing their face, brushing their teeth, taking a drink of water. “How many of you prayed this morning ‘O God, help us’…that your children and grandchildren might have something to eat. How many of you, when you have no food in the house have gone to the garbage dump to poke around for something to bring home to your children and grandchildren so that they might eat? I have seen it, especially in Managua, Nicaragua, at a place they call ‘la Chureca – el Gran Basurero’ (the Great City Dump), a mountain of stinking garbage, with a stench so foul that I could not breathe. And yet there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, scrounging here and there to find some food to take home to their loved ones. How many of you when you have found no food at all for your children have gone outside to make mud pies – perhaps add a little salt to give it flavor – and feed that to your children when their stomachs begin to grumble? It happens in Haiti.”

A few years ago, Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion” was heavily attended during Lent. But more than recalling the passion of Christ, what Lent is about is feeling the compassion of Jesus. To be compassionate is to walk with and feel the pain and suffering of another. It is worth remembering that Jesus did not die of a heart attack…but of an aching heart…because his compassionate heart was attacked by betrayal, abandonment, mocking, and cold rejection by the hearts of those whom he loved. And yet his love would not be stilled. We are saved not by the physical death of Jesus but by the absoluteness of love which even torture and death could not conquer.

As another Lent comes to a close, may we take these last few days to truly open our hearts, to be compassionate, to walk with the suffering and feel their aching heart…and Our Lord’s.