Whenever we touch the sacred we realize our limitation. Alone we stretch out our hands to gain balance. But balance can come only by grasping the hands of those around us. Bound to them we can face that which is overpowering us. We know that change can be for good or ill.
Unknown pain leaves the direction of change unknown.
But so does known pain. We may think we know the direction and intensity of the change announced by pain, but we can never be completely sure of the direction. Pain in the abstract, however, is never the sacrament. As sacrament and sacramenting the person expresses and bridges the worlds of change and consciousness as they respond to and are responded to as human beings. It is in these responses that we witness choice, love, justice, meaning, belonging, and a spirituality of pain.