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After
withdrawing about a
stone’s throw from his disciples, and kneeling, Jesus prayed,
saying, “Father
if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but
yours be
done.” And to strengthen him an angel
from heaven appeared to him. He was in
such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops
of blood
falling on the ground.
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Frankie
Dunn, Maggie Fitzgerald’s trainer and father-figure, was a caring
man. Although he had made mistakes in his life
with his family, he still cared about them. Most of all, he cared
about Maggie, and when she was deliberately
attacked and hurt, becoming a quadriplegic forever, he cared all the
more. When Maggie begged him to take her out of her
pain, Frankie began a battle within himself that never ceased during
the
remainder of his life. The movie
excellently portrays the pathos and mental pain that Frankie suffered
as he
struggled with his decision of what to do.
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The
crime of mercy-killing or assisted suicide is always a complex,
complicated
matter, especially when someone as likable as Maggie Fitzgerald in the
movie
“Million Dollar Baby,” begs to be killed. According to
Christian standards, of course, the action of killing is
wrong, but the human pathos and mental pain involved probably can never
be
completely understood by people outside the situation. Frankie
Dunn was in the situation, and once
he followed his conscience and committed the crime, it is only fitting
that he
is never heard from again. We can only
guess the immense pain he must have felt.
Jesus Christ was aware of the intense human feeling of mental torture. Luke the evangelist even describes the moment of his hurt by saying that his sweat became like drops of his blood. According to the evangelist, Jesus felt completely the pain of rejection and abandonment, and wanted to avoid the situation if he possibly could. During the agony in the Human beings suffer pain; much of it is mental. Things do not work out the way we were hoping, or there is a death of someone close to us that happened without our being prepared, or a person suffers from an illness that we wish we could cure. Although the mental pain and its intensity will differ from person to person, the fact is that at some time in our lives, we will all feel the pain of mental suffering. The lesson of Jesus Christ is that we accept the pain, work with it as best we can, and move on in life. |
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THOUGHT
What is the most
painful mental
pain you have suffered?
PRAYER Good and gracious God, your Son
suffered his passion and death not only to redeem us, but to teach us a
lesson
of how to deal with pain, both physical and mental. Help us learn
the difficult lesson of
enduring the mental pain that we have. Be with us, we pray.
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©2007
Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America |