Can Our Wounds Be Our Bridge to Help Heal the World?



https://ignatiansolidarity.net/blog/2021/03/04/begin-to-heal     

     


Wounded parts-these are generally what we want to avoid in our lives. Who wants to face their own pain and suffering? In today's Ignatian Solidarity Network, Anna Robertson brings us face to face with the hidden struggles of our own interior lives: 

“When we fail to tend our wounds with compassion, 
we often end up transmitting them onto others.”

 

For me, a midlife crisis that led to a 'dark night of the soul', gave me the opportunity to become deeply immersed in dealing with my wounded parts.

Although this was a very challenging path, it led me to reconnect with Christ's Spirit in new ways that nourished my soul. As I faced my own wounds, my spiritual path led me to become aware of God/Christ within myself, as well as all people, and the world. I learned to see any daily irritations with other people as opportunities to learn more about myself, and what old wounds were triggering me to see others as the problem. My Christ center within helped me see what I needed to shift in myself and feel more compassion for others on their own journeys. Today I can continue to use this awareness in my personal life, and it can also help how I relate to the world. I found it to be true that as I learn to love myself, I can love others more completely. As I embrace my own wounds, I can find new ways to live and love in the world.

Can I see perpetrators of violence and/or greed suffering with their own wounds? Can I see the suffering of victims of violence and oppression as opportunities for me to hold them in Christ's light? Can I 'be' with someone dying alone due to Covid-19? Can I embrace my own feelings of grief? These are some of the challenges for me this Lenten season.

How are we each called to new ways of being as we acknowledge or own wounds? Can we embrace the love and light that Christ offers us, so we can share it with the world?

Luanne D.


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