By Nna Anulumadu
The Chief Shepherd of Onitsha Archdiocese His Grace Most Rev Valerian Okeke recently stated that suffering develops compassion in us.
The prelate said this in his 2023 pastoral letter.
According to him, suffering helps us to develop sympathy and sensitive to others who are going through the same suffering we have experienced. ” It helps us to put our whole heart into helping a fellow sufferer and do not spare any assistance we could offer since it was an experience we have been through. We can understand why the letter to the Hebrew call Jesus a compassionate high priest who is able to sympathize with us because he himself experienced our suffering when he was on earth ( Heb. 4:15). Truly, suffering develops empathy in the people, that is, the ability to enter into the painful state of the sufferer because one has been in that state before.
