I recently attended our university student fall retreat, where the speaker was Fr. Bryan Duggan, the vocations director. The theme for the weekend was wounds, what they were, how to identify them and how to heal them. The topic of wounds is quite relevant to us today; it seems like humans are doing everything possible to avoid suffering and the acknowledgement of wounds.
Wounds are different for everyone, based on the shared experiences of life and various testimonies. Some were getting over impure relationships and discovering who God intended them to be, for others it was bad family situations and parental divorce. And others still, it was rejection and failure by the world’s standards and the suffering is usually regarded as a bad thing.
However, to suffer is to grow and you cannot grow without some pain. You cannot realize your need for God until you realize you are nothing without him and he can heal all wounds. Sometimes it requires him digging into the depths of the wound and cleaning it out before it can begin to heal. So let us unite our wounds to those of Jesus and let God bring good things out of them to help us grow in holiness. We must ignore the lies of the world; that suffering is meaningless and that if we experience it, our lives are hopeless. Our hope lies beyond this earthly life, which is short and fleeting. So release your fears, wounds and burdens to Christ and let him heal you completely.
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