The wounds of Your compassion

... like him carry in myself the wounds of Your compassion...

Yesterday's Gospel was the parable of the Good Samaritan. Recently, reflecting on this I noticed, really noticed, that one of the smaller details, often lost in its larger, over-arching themes, is that the Samaritan, moved with compassion, bandages the injured man's wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. And, though we aren't told this, he would surely have gently, reverently, massaged the oil into tender, bruised skin, handling the wounds of this stranger with as much tenderness and care as if they were his own, or a close relative's.

Go, says Jesus, and do likewise... Whether like Thomas, reaching out to the wounds of Jesus, his teacher and friend... or like the Samaritan, tending the wounds of a stranger; someone he would never have normally approached... we too are called to do likewise... 

And then last night, the first tweets and posts for the feast of St Francis of Assisi began to appear in my feed. And with the final words of this gentle prayer ...like him carry in myself the wounds of Your compassion, I was startled into remembering that Francis bore the stigmata, the wounds of Jesus, on his own body. He bore those same indelible, ugly wounds caused by violence, cruelty and hate: wounds transformed by forgiving love, and the Resurrection, into sure signs of Love's enduring strength and tenderness, healing and hope, passion and compassion. 

None of us might ever bear Christ's stigmata, but we do, all of us, bear our own, indelible wounds. Whether caused by cruelty or suffering, by infirmity, anguish or trauma, these wounds are part of us, and we need to tend and touch them with tenderness, reverence and care. And we need to allow God to tend and touch them too; to pour the oil and wine of his own compassion onto them, to cleanse and heal, and bandage them - bandage us - with his love. And then they - and we - will gradually be transformed into that same tenderness and compassion, to be kindness and care for others. 

May St Francis, carrier of the wounds of Christ's infinite compassion, pray for us and be beside us in our healing and growth...