Mtr Mary Trainor

Who hurt you so bad, so far beyond repair?*

Dear friend,

If you keep up with Hollywood stories, you may be aware of the recent death of actress Anne Heche.

While under the influence of cocaine, she crashed her small car into a home. The actress was severely injured, later succumbing. The home burned to the ground.

Though not deeply familiar with her history, I noticed what seemed to be a lack of sympathy/empathy for her circumstance and ultimate death. Why is that, I wondered?

…that you would meet each overture with curling lip?

We also find a lack of compassion in today’s second reading for the Daily Office. In Acts we encounter Ananias, to whom the Lord appears in a vision. Ananias resists the Lord’s invitation to visit Saul of Tarsus, known for his persecution of early followers of Jesus. Why should Ananias have to help this frightful man?

But the Lord pressed on: “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

Anne Heche was very open about her battles with mental health and addiction, the latter believed to have played a role in her demise. But in most cases we come around after a death, or at least try to remember the good and bad that make up everyone’s life.

…while we, who knew you well,
could see your courage in the face of fear
your wit, and thoughtfulness…

People are complicated. No one is just one thing. One aspect does not the whole of us make. No matter what wrong thing I may be doing at the moment of my death, I pray that charity will sneak its way into the memories of friends that I may be recalled with some attempt at balance.

…and will remember you
with something close to love.

Mtr Mary

*Beyond Repair by Marylyn Plessner, used with permission in the Three Pines series by Louise Penny, there attributed to character Ruth Zardo