We cannot remove other people’s pain.
The best we can do is to be there for them, for support and comfort.
But, suffering is a solitary experience.
We cannot reach in and take it away from someone.
Nor can anyone else do the same for us.
Often, when we try to prevent or ease another’s suffering, we actually slow down the healing process.
Instead of allowing them to face their pain, we distract them from it and this prolongs their experience of it.
While our assistance may help to lessen the immediate effects of whatever suffering they are going through, the real work, the true healing must be done internally.
In truth, however, while our suffering and our healing are solitary experiences, we are not truly alone in them.
God is always present, both with us and within us.
If in our suffering, we turn to him for guidance and comfort, it will always come to us.
The same is true for others.
This place where our need and God’s grace and mercy meet is where our healing truly happens.
By trying to relieve others of their suffering, we risk standing in the way of their need to commune with that which is within them that will fully heal them.
Of course, we should be there for others with love, compassion, and empathy, but we should also be humble enough to know that it is not we who have the power to relieve their suffering.
At best, we are merely vessels of healing.
We, ourselves, are not the healers.