Two days into 2012, and the voice on the twelfth
phone call of the day speaks love as real as ever. Unexpected a few years ago,
yet as promised over three decades ago love doesn't change though people do.
Divorced after triple decades of marriage, a good marriage at that, it hurts
being reduced to hearing people of the world say: "Get over the dog that
has done you wrong." "Go on
with your life." "You deserve better." Such words even with good
intentions are not pastoral. Pastoral words are given with respect and care for
the thoughts and emotions of the hurting not for the ones intending to console.
When caring for the broken in heart, listen with empathy.
Hearing the voice on the other end of the phone is
not always easy, when you are in the deep rivers of responsibilities brought in
with the New Year. Pastoral counselors, for sure, have to take care to be able
to care for the souls of men and women. When pressures on the emotions of the
counselor are too severe, the counselor needs to make clear the unavailability
to attend to the needs of the persons in stress. Not intending to blow the
opportunity to help, pastoral counselors should prayerfully pause and make sure
to be available in authentic ways to the person or persons needing them. The
caller had questions. While the caller did not need to hear the response of a
pastoral counselor, the needy needed the pastoral counselor to be able to
respond with true answers.
Things happen to good people in life, which are not
so good. Searching for answers to why things happen is the nature of being
human. Pastoral words to the hurting are meant to heal, guide, sustain, and in
some cases reconcile. Words of truth should be pastoral, and you do not have to
speak as a pastoral counselor to speak the truth in love. How do you tell love
of years past that God has to make something out of the non-sense? While it is
human to search for answers, it is human, too, not to have the answers
desirable in the search. When you have
searched and searched, cried and prayed, and searched until you cried, and
cried through your prayers, you hold on to faith, hope and love.
God does love the world and gave Jesus Christ, so
that by believing we shall receive. The answer is in life, and the life of
believers is eternal. What may not be clear today, shall be made clear by and
by. Wait on the Lord, who gives all things to those who trust and obey.
Well, the answer has been found. Pray in the name of
Jesus Christ, our resurrected Lord through all human hurt. When we pray the
answer may not come from the source of inquiry but from God, and be given to
both the researcher and the interviewed. Beyond every intentional question of
why, there is an intended response for relief. God has the answer as revealed
through Jesus Christ. "For this, too, he died." Forgiveness comes
when the answers given in truth are the pastoral words representing God. God is
gracious and merciful, righteous and good, so that even the disrespectable
actions are forgiven as the reverence to God is given. The answer is wrong is
wrong, and cannot be made right, but shall be forgiven, so that the children of
God may process and step in the blessedness of reconciliation with God through
Christ. The human to human relationship in the end fades by numerous means, but
the Divine to human relation as with love cannot be changed though people do.
Prayer: God
of grace and righteousness, have mercy on us and grant us goodness in
forgiveness, so as to be at peace within. Amen.
