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The Good WordAuthor: The Good Word
Short reflections, published most days of the week, on the Word of God. A great way to start your day! Language: en Genres: Christianity, Religion & Spirituality Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time: February 9 (Fr. Kevin Mac Donald, C.Ss.R.)
Sunday, 8 February, 2026
On a trip to the Philippines in 2015, Pope Francis met a twelve-year-old girl who captured the hearts of people around the world. She tearfully asked the Pope why God allowed children to suffer? The young girl, Glyzelle Palomar, used to live her life on the streets. She was abandoned by her parents and left to make her own way as best she could. Glyzelle broke down in tears as she asked: “Why is God allowing something like this to happen, even to innocent children? And why are there so few helping us?” Pope Francis, visibly moved, responded, “Only when we are able to cry are we able to come close to respond to your question. There are some realities that you can only see through eyes that are cleansed by tears.” Today’s Gospel reading about people rushing to their homes to gather the sick and bring them to Jesus tells us that the question of suffering is one of the most challenging ones of any time to address. We see physical suffering, people with medical conditions and serious diseases carrying great pain. We know there are people suffering from depression, schizophrenia, and other mental disorders. And then there are people spiritually suffering - lost, without hope, in despair - no faith, no meaning to their lives. People suffer all around us. No doubt, we ourselves at times need to embrace the mystery of suffering. Perhaps the most difficult suffering of all is to lose someone, to have someone we love; a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a close friend, or God forbid, a daughter or a son die. There are no easy answers to suffering. One can read every theology book in the world and still be left with the question of suffering. There is a famous Austrian poet, he is dead now, Rainer Marie Rilke, who said this: “Sometimes we can only live with the questions, stay with them, mull them over in our mind. Perhaps slowly, over time, we gradually live into the answers.” The people living on the shores of the Sea of Galilee knew where to look in trying to understand the mystery of suffering. They looked to this simple, loving man from Nazareth. They learned from Jesus that God is in every place of pain and suffering. God is there. God is present. God has not abandoned the poor and pain-filled people of the world. But it is important to remember that our faith is not only a Good Friday faith. Good Friday leads to Easter Sunday. It leads to resurrection, to Christ, overcoming the bonds of death and being raised up by his Father in the Spirit, to life eternal with God the Father in heaven. We live that hope. The funeral Mass prayer sums it up: “There’s comes a time when every tear shall be wiped away and we shall see you, our God, as you are and become like you, and be with you, face to face.Peace and Blessings, Kevin MacDonald, C.Ss.R.
