What do you do with your wounds? (Pope Francis)

   The cross displays the nails that pierce his hands and feet, his open side. But to the wounds in his body are added those of his soul. How much anguish, Jesus is alone, betrayed, handed over and denied by his own – by his friends and even his disciples – condemned by the religious and civil powers, excommunicated, Jesus even feels abandoned by God (cf. v. 46). We too are wounded – who isn’t in life? Who does not bear the scars of past choices, of misunderstandings, of sorrows that remain inside and are difficult to overcome? God does not hide the wounds that pierced his body and soul, from our eyes. He shows them so we can see that a new passage can be opened with Easter: to make holes of light out of our own wounds. 

    And I ask you: what do you do with your wounds, with the ones only you know about? You can allow them to infect you with resentment and sadness, or I can instead unite them to those of Jesus, so that my wounds too might become luminous. Our wounds can become springs of hope when, instead of feeling sorry for ourselves or hiding them, we dry the tears shed by others; when, instead of nourishing resentment for what was robbed of us, we take care of what others are lacking; when, instead of dwelling on ourselves, we bend over those who suffer; when, instead of being thirsty for love, we quench the thirst of those in need of us. 

--Pope Francis, April 7, 2023 

Image source: The Measure of the Side Wound and the Body of Christ, wood cut, Rosenwald Collection (ca. 1484-1492), https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.4046.html