(The Capuchin, March 1995, p.3)
Every now and then we all hit a rough patch in life, when a lot of things go wrong. At such times, one temptation is to yield to the subtle seduction of self-pity. But what begins with self-pity may end – in some cases, at least – with suicide.
The most powerful antidote I know of to such a beguiling drift is to visit a hospital. There one comes in contact at a very basic, elemental level with the reality of human suffering. One has to look it straight in the face, recognise it for what it is, and call it by name. That is when a sense of balance and proportion begin to restore our equilibrium.
As a missionary in Zambia, I lived at a mission called Mangango where there’s a leper village. If you want to see human suffering at its most striking and offensive, that’s the place to see it. And yet a constant characteristic of that leper village is its peace and joy. When you go there you cannot help but notice the way in which most people, afflicted by one of the most disfiguring of all illnesses, actually radiate peace. There isn’t the anger, bitterness or self-pity that you might expect. People have accepted their situation, knowing that, as things stand for them right now, they cannot change it. And, in accepting it, they have found peace.
I sometimes visited that village when things weren’t going well for me and when I was tempted to feel sorry for myself and to think of what a hard time I was having. My contact with lepers did more than restore a sense of proportion. It was more than a matter of recognizing that they were much worse off than I… cold comfort at best. Their ability to accept the limitations, inadequacies and deficiencies of life helped me to be able to accept, not passively or fatalistically, but I think, realistically.
It wasn’t just peace I experienced among the lepers in Mangango. There was also joy. It was as if they could look life in the eye and say, ‘You’ve done your worst, and I’m still here, so I’m not afraid anymore.’ It is like the perfect joy that Saint Francis spoke of to his brothers, the unassailable joy that remains intact even at the worst times.
In the Western world we seem to live in a culture of grievance; you’re nobody if you haven’t a chip on your shoulder. The lepers, the rejects of society, the “unclean” can minister to us since they, who really have something to grouse about, are the heralds of a civilisation of love.