Silent Sacrament

We have the ability to share the presence of God with others and to impart the comfort God provides. Pastor Skye Jethani tells the story of a hospital visit he made as a young seminary student. The man he was visiting was horribly injured from a drunken fall the night before. He confided in Skye that he had been a pastor who had lost his family and ministry to his alcoholism. In that moment, there was nothing to do but weep with the man. “I don’t know how long we cried, but our weeping was a liturgy without words. The tears were a silent sacrament containing confession and absolution, condemnation and compassion, burial and resurrection. I knew Bill wasn’t clinging to me—he was clinging to God, just as I wasn’t merely crying over Bill’s sin—I was mourning my own”.