Trinity and Humanity

There has been a rash of disturbing headlines lately, chronicling events where people have perished due to accidents.  “Forty Still Missing in deadly Canada Oil Train Crash.”  Or:  “2 Dead, 168 Hurt in San Francisco Air Crash.”  Or:  “Arizona Wildfire Kills 19 Firefighters.”  With events such as these, we struggle to know how to respond, and our hearts are heavy for those who died and for the families they left behind.  What can we do to help?

So I asked a Facebook friend this question.  Jesus Benyosef, along with his merry band of friends, is re-enacting the gospel on Facebook, 21st-century style.  Here’s what I posted on Jesus’s wall:

Me:  Jesus, your friends in Prescott, AZ, are grieving, and the rest of us are, too. How can we best help?

Jesus:   keep watch with me, and pray

Me:   It’s sad to say, but it doesn’t seem like that’s enough. ‘Spose that’s just my limited human perspective.

Jesus:   I feel the same way.

Jesus’s response “Keep watch with me and pray” is a good and wise answer, just not a satisfying one.  Humanly, we want to fix problems, or better yet, we want to undo them.  Reverse, replay, and change them so they turn out right, at least to what we perceive is the best outcome.  But fixing and undoing are not what we are called to do in the face of suffering, at least most of the time.  There are instances when we are faced with suffering that we can do something about, and in those situations, it is our responsibility to act within the scope, resources, and abilities we have been given.

Yet much of the suffering we encounter is outside our realm of influence, and for those frustrating, heart-wrenching occasions, Jesus’s words give us guidance and reveal our part in helping those who suffer.  For me, “keeping watch” means to be willing to endure others’ pain and suffering, sitting with them in their mess, even as Jesus sits with us all in our human mess.  Through the incarnation, the Son willingly took on our “mess,” our frail and beautiful human condition, so that we might know the love of God.  When we are willing to vicariously join in the suffering of others (to the extent that our hearts are able), we are participating in this.

The praying part of Jesus’s wise words of counsel to me on Facebook gives us two tasks that we can do.  The first is recognizing when we are unable to fix or undo a situation and that it isn’t our responsibility to fix or undo.  The second task is giving the suffering to Someone who can comfort far beyond our limited means and abilities.  Prayer fulfills our responsibility, but it can seem like it isn’t enough, humanly speaking.  Even my Facebook friend Jesus feels that way.

By sharing others’ suffering and praying, I believe the love and comfort of God is spread among the hurting in ways that are far beyond what you or I could ever imagine, and that includes those of us willing to “keep watch and pray.”  Suffering that we can do nothing about allows us to experience our deepest connection with others as we “keep watch and pray.”

~ by Nan Kuhlman