Our
age has sought to bring equality to the fore as no age before it. We have
sought out shadows and fought to bring light. We have set up models, glorified
leaders, and proclaimed our heroes.
One
shadow still remains; the shadow that covers every human soul and is in need of
healing: the shadow of woundedness.
Woundedness
doesn’t speak to glory, but rather to struggle. Yet, in all the ways that we
are similar, nothing unites us more than that fact that each of us has been
wounded.
But
what are those wounds? For some of us, it is hurtful events in life, betrayals
of those who should have loved us, forgetfulness of those who call themselves
our friends. Unimaginable losses.
Those
wounds are more able to heal than the ones we forget. We read in Sirach 24:21 of those wounds, as it says You who eat of me
will hunger still, you who drink of me will thirst for me. It is as if we
are being told that no matter what we accomplish, we will still have needs, we
will still have emptiness, we will still want. And in our attempts to satisfy
those wants, we often compromise. We often settle for the lesser satisfaction
rather than find the deeper fulfillment. I believe it is this compromise that
makes up most of our woundedness.
Only
when we remember our woundedness can we truly stand together. Because when I
remember this wound within myself, caused by my own decisions, can I have the
understanding and compassion that accepts another's wounds. Only then does
tolerance turn into empathy and acceptance of another. Only when I am aware of
my own fragility will I allow another to have theirs.
