Fr. Ferdinando Colombo: Consoling the Afflicted
Actualizing the works of mercy through the eyes of Fr. Ferdinando Colombo
“I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, the Spirit of truth, whom the Father will send in my name; he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn. 14:25-26).
An evangelical, mysterious and profound icon of the consolation of the afflicted is that concerning Jesus on the night of his passion.
“When he came to the place, he said to them, ‘Pray, lest you enter into temptation.’ Then he departed from them about a stone’s throw, fell on his knees and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me! Yet not my will, but your will be done.” An angel then appeared to him from heaven to comfort him. He entered the struggle and prayed more intensely, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. Then, rising from prayer, he went to the disciples and found them asleep from sadness.” (Luke 22:39-45)
Jesus’ sorrow fills his disciples with sadness, and they escape Jesus’ affliction by taking refuge in sleep. Only an angel, who comes from heaven, can stand near Jesus and console him: it is not known what he did or said, but he gives Jesus the strength to enter deeply into the struggle and not to fall prey to despair. (Blessed Paul VI Community)
Perhaps never more than in this time of the dictatorship of relativism is man – who is always and everywhere “begging for meaning and fulfillment” – lacking in meaning and perspective, and therefore afflicted. The massive use of anti-anxiety drugs – worldwide – gives us a reliable and alarming sign of this.
Lack of goods, material and spiritual; sickness and suffering; disorientation and abandonment cause us to weep. Who then can console it?
And what characteristics must consolation have to be effective? Jesus, before He ascended to the Father, promised men the perfect Comforter, as He is called in the sequence of the Veni Sancte Spiritus: Perfect Comforter, sweet host of the soul, sweetest relief.
Paraclete is the term by which St. John in his gospel refers to the Holy Spirit. Taken from legal language, the Latin equivalent is advocatus, literally “called near,” the lawyer understood as defender and by extension consoler. In legal texts it indicates, in a trial, “one who stands by the side of the accused” to defend him. (Chiara Mantovani)
Those who set out to console the afflicted will never be unemployed in this world; consoling the afflicted is undoubtedly one of the most practicable and ever-needed works of mercy, but one that certainly cannot be delegated to a welfare institution.
Pope Benedict XVI writes in number 28 of his encyclical Deus caritas est (God is love), “Love – caritas – will always be necessary, even in the most just society. There is no just state order that can make the service of love superfluous. Those who want to get rid of love dispose themselves to get rid of man as man. There will always be suffering that needs consolation and help. Always there will be loneliness. Always there will also be situations of material need in which help in the line of concrete love for one’s neighbor is indispensable.
The State that wants to provide everything, that absorbs everything into itself, ultimately becomes a bureaucratic instance that cannot ensure the essential that suffering man-every man-needs: loving personal dedication. Not a state that regulates and dominates everything is what we need, but instead a state that generously recognizes and supports, in the line of the principle of subsidiarity, the initiatives that arise from the various social forces and unite spontaneity and closeness to men in need of help. The Church is one of these living forces: in it pulses the dynamic of love aroused by the Spirit of Christ.”
The afflicted are not to be comforted but consoled. The use of the verb “to console,” (not to be confused with “to comfort”), indicates a positive action that, by responding to the needs of others, undoes the causes of suffering and recreates the previous conditions of well-being. While comfort is limited to pious as well as useless moral exhortation, consolation must aim at ‘eliminating the causes of suffering. When this is not done, consolation turns into harassment as Job, afflicted with an enormity of misfortunes, complains to his friends who try to make him understand the reason for so many misfortunes: “I have heard many such things already! You are all harassing consolers. Will they not have an end to the words blown up? I too would be able to speak as you do if you were in my place: I would drown you with words…I would comfort you with my mouth…” (Job 16:1-4) (Albert Maggi)
Consoling is an effort that demands work on oneself. The words and attitudes of those who offer condolences are often the fairgrounds of superficiality, the triumph of embarrassment, a dutiful ritual from which one cannot escape but is not up to.
Only those who have experienced grief and have known how to inhabit its pain, take on its emptiness, let themselves be shaped by its lack, can ennoble, with their discretion and intelligence of what is taking place in the soul of those in mourning, that encounter. And the “appropriate” words or gestures made toward the one who was in mourning, remain engraved in the memory of the one who received them as a precious and rare gem. Such is the power of consolation. (Francis Lamendola)
A journalist insistently asked if he could photograph her eyes because “Mother had an ugly face, but the most beautiful and happy eyes, never seen even in actors, queens, models….” Mother Teresa having heard this replied, “Do you want to know why my eyes are so happy? The secret is very simple: my eyes are happy because my hands wipe so many tears! Do the same for yourself, I assure you that you will experience the same joy!” (Testimony of Cardinal Angelo Comastri)
Prayer
To Our Lady of Consolation chosen by God to become Mother of the Savior by the Holy Spirit,
graciously hear our prayers:
Thou, who hast experienced moments of unspeakable sorrow at the foot of the Cross,
knowest how to understand those who weep and hast power to wipe away our tears.
We beseech Thee: succor and comfort, with motherly love, those who confidently invoke Thee from this valley of weeping.
Visit our families, comfort the sick, protect children and youth,
bring back to the straight path those who have lost it.
You who now stand beside the Divine Son, surely blessed, sustain our faith, revive our hope,
increase our charity, that, following your admirable examples, we may one day join You in eternal happiness. Amen
Online version of the book by clicking on “The Work of Mercy – Fr. Ferdinando Colombo – browsable”
Photo
- “Le Opere di Misericordia“, fr. Ferdinando Colombo
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