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Catholic Charities USA
Good Friday of the Lord's Passion
Readings of the Day
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"All is gift."
St. Ignatius of Loyola is known for saying this, and Ignatian
spirituality carries this message forward, inviting us to find God in
all things. Everything around us, both beauty and suffering, can
speak of God.
At first this seems untrue. How can suffering be a gift? What is
"good" about Good Friday? How can hardship,
sickness, and even death be good?
I have wrestled with this "all is gift" statement ever
since going through the 19th Annotation of the Spiritual Exercises
five years ago-doubting it at one moment, and the next moment
wanting to have it tattooed on my wrist. When I went through the
Exercises in daily life, my husband and I were already two years into
an infertility diagnosis. I began the nine-month retreat journey
hoping and praying that something would be birthed in and through
me-be it a baby or something else. At the end of the nine
months, there was no baby to speak of, but a new life in Christ was
emerging from sharing my suffering with Him and helping Jesus to carry
His own.
My husband's and my desire to become parents by adoption was
also birthed in the process, and two months after finishing the
Exercises, we met with our colleague at Catholic Charities to learn
more about domestic adoption. Though we did not go through Catholic
Charities for our own adoption process, we felt carried and supported
by that community. The intense suffering-longing and
grief-of infertility gave birth to our adoption journey, which
led us to become the parents of fraternal boy-girl twins
two-and-a-half years ago. We added a third miracle to our family nine
months ago when, after almost six years of unexplained infertility,
our son, Jonah, was born. Truly, all is gift. Our cross of
infertility lead us to Amat and Zoë, and then to Jonah. Our
suffering became our greatest joy.
Our first reading today reminds us that "By his wounds, we were
healed" (Isaiah 53:5)-again that paradox of healing
through hardship. God's passion and death is the hallway
to salvation. Good Friday is the great threshold moment. It is
good-it is gift-because of what it opens us to on the
other side of the threshold.
The suffering of our family members, friends, clients, and neighbors
in need is not "good" in and of its own. Though it
might make us feel good or give value to our work when we respond to a
need, their struggle is not a "gift" by itself.
Suffering is only good because God-who is all good-enters
into our suffering with us and, through it, transforms us to be more
like Him.
Don't get me wrong: we are, indeed, Easter people. And I
hope we have that Paschal Joy in all we do in service of others.
But we are first Good Friday people. We sit at the foot of the
cross. We take up our own cross. We suffer and beg for
salvation. And it is through these Good Friday moments that we are
transformed and redeemed until, truly, all is gift.
After four years at Catholic Charities of Tennessee in
Nashville, Aimee Shelide Mayer
[email protected]?subject=CCUSA%20Lenten%20Reflection
works as a consultant to the Catholic Labor Network, the CCHD
Education & Outreach team at the USCCB, and other non-profits,
churches, and schools around issues of social justice and spiritual
formation. She is in training to be certified in Ignatian Spiritual
Direction and a member of St. Henry Catholic Church in Nashville, TN,
where she lives with her husband, Collen, their cockapoo, Jayber, and
three kids under three years old.
Sign up to receive the Daily Lent Reflection emails and other CCUSA
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