麻豆约拍

Good morning. 聽There are big tragedies that echo down the decades 鈥� like the 96 deaths and many injuries at the Hillsborough football ground. 聽And there are personal, private tragedies that never make the headlines. 聽As outsiders, we encounter the survivors of each sort of tragedy in the same way. 聽We meet a person, or a family, in pain.So how do we react? 聽How should we react?In forty years of meeting those left behind I鈥檝e come to know many pitfalls.聽I鈥檝e wanted to rush in behind a defensive shield of kindness and sympathy, filling any silence with a well-meant word 鈥� but that鈥檚 my feelings determining what I do and say. 聽Or I鈥檝e been overwhelmed by my own feelings of inadequacy. 聽Knowing that there鈥檚 nothing I can do to make it all better, I say nothing, and metaphorically 鈥� or even physically 鈥� cross the street. 聽And, yes, I have done that.In all those years I鈥檝e come to realise that I get it wrong when I set the agenda. 聽When I decide what鈥檚 best for someone else 鈥� even when all my instincts say they do need to cry, or stop drinking, or leave the house.Or when I let my grief dictate my reaction 鈥� because no matter how sad I may feel in the face of someone else鈥檚 tragedy, it鈥檚 not my world that鈥檚 been changed irrevocably.Looking back, I think I鈥檝e got it most right when I鈥檝e done least 鈥� but been there and listened and sometimes cried 鈥� not for me, but with them. 聽But been there 鈥� even if 鈥渢here鈥� is no more than a silent handshake, a look into someone else鈥檚 eyes and an open question.Lord God,when we are faced by someone else鈥檚 tragedy,give us the insight to forget our feelings,and the courage to open ourselves to their pain.Amen.