At your house

The suffering is a prison inside which the soul of the unfortunate is locked up. In 1985, I still lived with my parents. One afternoon, someone knocked on the door. When my mother opened, she found herself in front of a desperate young man. He said to my mother : "Would not you have something to eat ?" Immediately, my mother invited her to enter. He was a neighborhood youth who lived in a small apartment a few steps from home. This young man was unemployed, unemployed, and he lived alone. His relationship with his parents had deteriorated.

My mother brought coffee and my father went to prepare a parcel of food. As for me, to make it wait, I started our video recorder. I thought that this young man was not at home by chance and that we should seize the opportunity to make him listen to the Good News. I then started a video in the camera. This one presented an evangelization meeting. To avoid embarrassing the young man, I left the room for a few minutes to let him listen quietly. When I came back, I found him deeply upset. Tears flowed down his face... He cried and asked God for forgiveness for his sins. That day, this young man gave his life to the Lord.

Let's not give up on the walls of suffering ! Let's see beyond these walls ! Let us perceive the deafening cry of pain that resonates in the hearts of those who suffer in silence around us. The love of God penetrates the thickest and most secret walls of suffering. The famous Methodist preacher Charles Inwood did not hesitate to express his feelings on the question. He said : "The groans of millions of souls on the earth reach my ears and break my heart ; I strive with the help of God to pierce, at least in part, the dense darkness, extreme misery, and indescribable despair of those millions of souls that do not belong to Christ."

It is now, then, that the Church must attack the walls of suffering! It is not in Heaven that we will evangelize! It is here on earth.

Jeremy Sourdril