Compassion is not learned without suffering.

Unless we have suffered and wept,

we really don’t understand what compassion is,

nor can we comfort someone who is suffering.

Unless we have walked in darkness,

we can’t help wanderers to find their way.

But if we have suffered we become

pathfinders for others.

And it is by reaching out to others

that we ourselves are healed.

Jesus bore the marks of our violent world on his body.

Those wounds were the proof of his love.

They were the mortal wounds the Good Shepherd

picked up in caring for his sheep.

The wounds of Jesus are a source of consolation,

courage, and hope to us in our sufferings.

By his wounds we are healed.