Sacrifice and Healing
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Faith on Tuesday, July 07, 2009 8:37 PM
At Mass on Sunday I see one of my college classmates with his wife. They’ve been married just two weeks.
He holds the door for her and shepherds her into the pew as if he were guarding something precious and valuable. Their visible love is touching.
I don’t see any other newlyweds at Mass. But as I pray and look up at the huge crucifix that stands over our sanctuary, it occurs to me to look for visible love elsewhere.
I see it just across the aisle. A toddler-aged girl is resting her cheek on her mother’s shoulder, her mother stroking her on the back. The little girl’s older brother died in the womb at full term and the little girl herself, her mother has told me, would almost certainly not have been conceived if her brother had lived.
In that embrace between mother and daughter I see both sacrifice and healing.
In another part of the sanctuary a father holds his son. In this kid-full parish there’s nothing unique about that, but this little boy has Down’s Syndrome and some other health problems. He was hospitalized for months after his birth, and he is about the age of my daughter but now only half her size.
His mother once told me, her eyes clear and shining, what a blessing he has been to their family. Even from across the room, I can see that this is true. The way the father gently holds his son, the way the mother brushes his hair back from his forehead, show how precious he is to them.
Yet again: sacrifice and healing wrapped up in one.
My eyes are drawn back to the wooden image of our Lord on the cross. I think about his ultimate sacrifice and the healing that it brings to the world.
The more that our own efforts at love mirror the love on the cross, the deeper and more true they are. He shows that to us as he hangs there, crown of thorns in place, dying out of perfect love for all of us.
Real love. Sacrifice and healing. There it is.
In a world where love is mostly depicted as desire, pleasure, and the search for self-satisfaction, we would all do well to lift our eyes to the crucifix more.
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