Because March 25 fell on Sunday, the Feast of the Annunciation was moved to March 26. That was the day that I had an appointment to get my tracheostomy tube changed; readers of this blog may be aware of what the biannual procedure entails. Suffice it to say, it’s a somewhat painful and tends to wear me out for the day; the estimated total of 80 minutes on the road have a lot to do with it as well. So I didn’t feel like doing anything but sitting in front of the TV watching EWTN: I heard many reminders about hope in the midst of suffering which connected my thoughts to the mystery of the Incarnation.

My pain is endowed with supernatural power, redemptive power, because Christ became a man and endowed the human experience with his own Life. At the moment of his conception in the immaculate mother’s womb, Christ Jesus assumed our human nature in order to redeem it: quoting an early church father, Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio put it so clearly by saying that “everything assumed [by the Eternal Word of God] is redeemed,” that is to say, bodies and souls have all been touched by God when he himself shared in our humanity. He shared in every stage of my life, from unborn child to grown man. Because Jesus shared in my suffering as well, he knows what is to suffer, and he totally transformed it into an opportunity for tremendous blessings and graces which last forever. Therefore, I’m never alone in my suffering… and don’t we all need Somebody to lean on?