“I have never found it easy to be with people who suffer, to enter into the chaos of others. Yet, every time I have done so, it has been a gift to me, better than the wrapped and ribboned packages. I am pulled out of myself to be love’s presence to someone else, even as they are love’s presence to me. . . an unconditionally loving presence soothes broken hearts, binds up wounds, and renews us in life. This is a gift that we can all give, particularly to the suffering. When this gift is given, God’s love is present and Christmas happens daily.”
Father Kevin O’Neil, associate professor of moral theology at Washington Theological Union and co-author of Life, Death, and Catholic Medical Choices: 50 Questions from the Pew, writing in Maureen Dowd’s December 25 Washington Post column titled “Why, God?”