Thursday, April 11:
How are we healed of our wounding memories? We are healed first of all by letting them be available, by leading them out of the corner of forgetfulness, and by remembering them as part of our life stories. What is forgotten is unavailable and what is unavailable cannot be healed. . . .
By lifting our painful forgotten memories out of the egocentric, individualistic, private sphere, Jesus Christ heals our pains. He connects them with the pain of all humanity, a pain he took upon himself and transformed. To heal, then, does not primarily mean to take pains away but to reveal that our pains are part of a great pain, that our sorrows are part of a great sorrow, that our experience is part of the great experience of him who said, “But was it not ordained that the Christ should suffer and so enter into the Glory of God?” (Luke 24:26).
Henri J. M. Nouwen
Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
MATTHEW 26:38 (NIV)