Solidarity Sunday 2004
A Reflection
“Suffering,” Louis Evely writes, “confers upon those whom it rends the most intimate resemblance to the sorrowful Son whose cross saves the world.” Although Catholics believe that suffering, in and of itself, is wanton and meaningless, there is something valuable about this universal experience when situated within the greater totality of the Passion and death of Jesus Christ. Indeed, every human being has experienced first-hand, and will come to know anew, the many manifestations of physical and moral suffering; it is “as deep as man himself” John Paul II writes in his apostolic letter Salvifici Doloris. However, far too often, we distance or separate our own experiences of suffering from those of our brothers and sisters around the world . . .
Lent is a time of joyful and
reflective renewal; a time to deepen our lives as people of prayer; a time to
foster a faith which responds to the Gospel’s call to work for the Kingdom of
God, which is justice and peace. The
fifth Sunday of Lent, called Solidarity Sunday, calls us ever so clearly to
contemplate the universality of human suffering as told in the holy narrative
that has become our own: the Passion of Jesus.
For over a decade, the
young adult community of Saint Gabriel’s Parish in Saint-Hubert (often with
friends from neighboring Christian churches) has produced, directed, and
performed dramatic representations of the Passion in the context of genuine
accounts of suffering from across the globe.
Our actors, this year, spoke for Dr. Annalena Tonelli, a sixty year old
physician tending to tuberculosis patients in Somalia, who was shot twice in the
head at the doors of her 300-bed hospital in Boorama . . . child soldiers forced
to serve in the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and participate in horrifying
acts of violence, often against other children . . .
Jacqueline Moudeina, a human rights defender in Chad who almost lost her
leg after a grenade was thrown at her during a peaceful sit-in . . . and
countless others whose names remain unknown, but whose stories demand us to
think, pray, love, and act.
In the testimonials of
oppressed, tortured, humiliated, and terrified persons, we are reminded of the
inclusive and compassionate healing ministry of Jesus.
“Thus says the Lord,” we hear from Isaiah, “I give water in the
wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people
whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.”
Our God is a God of Love and Life. As
children in His Image, we are called to deepen the chasms of justice so that the
waters of life may rush to all who thirst.
~ Cory
Labrecque
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