Karen Swallow Prior: We Can Be an Army of Wounded Warriors — Or a Collective of Wounded Healers

A newcomer to the pool, a physician, arrives, hoping to be healed of a “heart in pain.” But when the angel appears and prepares to stir the healing waters that day, the angel admonishes this impatient newcomer, “Draw back, physician, this moment is not for you.”

When the physician complains, saying he, too, is in need of healing, the angel tells him:

“Without your wound where would your power be? It is your very remorse that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In love’s service only the wounded soldiers can serve.”

In love’s service only the wounded soldiers can serve.

Many soldiers today, it seems, are wounded. Many, so many, have been broken on the wheels of living.

But love’s service needs them all.

In love, may they keep persevering.

May they — may we all — bear the power of these wounds like a gift.

This article originally appeared on ReligionNews.com.