"A sea of suffering..."

Some days are like this,

you wake with an ache in your chest

that isn't even yours.

You know that somewhere, great rivers

     of blood are being shed.

Somewhere, mothers are weeping over

     children, bodies strewn like wildflowers.

Somewhere, men and women eat a bowl of pain —

A man tells his wife that he is leaving,

A woman wakes in an empty bed

or puts her hand to an empty place

     where a breast was.

Somewhere, in the screeching of brakes

     there is a shattering, of glass, of lives.

This earth is covered in a sea of suffering.

If for a few moments we manage to forget

     do not begrudge us our wine, our prayer, our reaching out

         for a word, a touch,

         even from a stranger.

~Regina Sara Ryan

Ave Maria!   This is exactly how I felt yesterday.  I was so acutely aware of that "sea of suffering" rushing over humankind like an enormous, never-ending tsunami wave.  Fear and sadness for those getting lost in the deluge nearly overwhelmed me.  As the psalmist put it so well, "They surrounded me, the snares of death, with the anguish of the tomb; they caught me, sorrow and distress" (Ps 116:3).  So I followed his example and "I called on the Lord's name" (v 4).  Jesus!  Jesus, save us!  Jesus, deliver us!  Jesus, have mercy on us!

How good and right it is to call upon Him whose members we are!  Christ Himself suffers and rejoices in us, even as we suffer and rejoice in Him and with Him.  And, as St. Paul told the early church in Corinth, when one member suffers, we all suffer, just as when one rejoices, we all rejoice (1 Cor 12:16).  Therefore, everyone's pain and joy are mine, and mine is theirs, and Christ's is ours and ours is His.

Perhaps for a few moments today I may manage to forget the sea of suffering, but I pray that I may never forget that we are the Body of Christ and each one of us is a member of it. Thanks be to God for His gift too wonderful for words!