By Fr Arockia Dhas Rayappan –
Often as though a spark of insight – gifted by the divine revelation through the pondering over the Holy Bible – every event in life makes sense to us eventually and gradually. We spontaneously understand the meaning of suffering with Jesus. Isn’t a grace? Isn’t a gratuitous gift from Jesus?
With the grace beyond human measure – abounding in sheer healing and forgiveness, we can visibly see that amidst all the twists and turns, and despite all the detours and divisions, God’s hand has been at work in our life, our family, and society. Then we are gifted with the revelation: God writes straight with crooked lines. We experience much spiritual consolation and peace. We experience streams of mercy purifying us and making us new from the core of our person.
God’s mercy is so abundant in our lives. Yes, we have been constantly healed, comforted, and made new. After being mercifully treated by God, we recognize how God wrote straight in the crooked lines of life. Reflecting on the experience of our holistic healing, yet filled with never-ending conversions at affective, intellectual, moral, and religious levels, we consciously make decisions to be partakers in the policy making process of the society aiming at progress and redemption – saying NO consciously to everything that is ungodly and inhuman. Then, we will be able to say with a clear conviction that God cleansed us with hyssop, and we were made clean. He washed us and we are now whiter than snow (Psalm 51.7). A renewal of fresh beginnings has just begun in us. Or shall we say that it has just won over us?
Convinced of our call through our God-experience and communitarian discernment with the spiritual guide/ respective religious animator/co-ordinator in the person of superior/ provincial/superior-general, we make the response of the Prophet Isaiah as our own and say, “Here I am. Send me!” (Isiah 6.9). We deeply realize the significance of the words of Saint Paul in our life:
“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 2.8-9).
The spiritual consolation we receive is beyond words. Words rest in stillness and silence. Is it a beatific vision of God? We dare not christen it. We accept our total ignorance about this.
Once we are convinced of the call to suffer with Jesus, our self-confidence submits itself to God-confidence. We are gently healed of hurtful memories – an ongoing process has just begun. We experience forgiveness spontaneously and forgive others easily. We move on from our past to live our life with Christian responsibility. Yes, we are more and more transformed into Christ and our lives are transfigured because of the grace we receive from the risen Lord. Genuine receptivity of this graced call to suffer with Jesus, in particular, lets us forgive everyone who has hurt or caused us pain either by volition or circumstantial necessity or by even an administrative decision – even offering each one benefit of doubt by believing in the goodness of the person in question. Thus, the fruit of our prayer manifests in spontaneous forgiveness of others and their errors:
“(Name), in the sweetest name of Jesus the healer, I forgive you!”
Wish you all the best in your vocation. When we accept to co-suffer with Jesus for the salvation of the world, our life is truly graced, blessed, and well-lived!
Father Arockia Dhas Rayappan ([email protected]) is a priest of Delhi Archdiocese and a Ph.D. student at Concordia University, Canada. His doctoral research explores practical, resourceful, and sustainable ways to foster social and religious harmony through Basic Ecclesial Communities in the contemporary Indian multi-cultural, plural-religious, social, economic, and political milieu. His ministry in the states of Delhi and Haryana has been in missions of Rohtak and Dharuhera, parishes, the Formation Commission, Vinay Gurukul – Delhi Archdiocesan Minor Seminary, and Saint Mary’s School at Bahu-Akbarpur. He served as the deputy secretary general and PRO of the Regional Bishops’ Council of the North from 2012-2014. His contributions have been published in The Voice of Delhi, The Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, Indian Catholic Matters, The Indian Currents, The New Leader, The Examiner, The Tablet (Brooklyn, USA), Golden Key Academy (Atlanta, USA), and JDV Times.