Editor's Note
Gentleness goes both ways
I remember a day so long ago that the picture in my mind is faded. I couldn’t have been more than five. My younger brother and I were playing after lunch in our dusty back yard in Missouri when our grandmother, who was babysitting us, came to the back step in tears. They turned out to be tears of remorse: It was Friday, but she had forgotten the day and fed us hot dogs for lunch. In those days eating meat on Fridays was a mortal sin, a sin my brother and I were too young to commit, but the guilt for which Granny, a devout Irish Catholic, now took upon herself.
This month, as we reflect in different ways on the fruits of the Holy Spirit we call kindness and gentleness, I’m reminded of my grandmother and many other wonderful, giving people I’ve known over the years who presented a sad paradox: Incredibly caring and tender with others, they could be harsh and unforgiving with themselves. Have you known anyone like this? Have you ever been anyone like this?
My grandmother had a simple spasm of scrupulosity that day, but I think many of us can temporarily forget that kindness and gentleness are good things, virtues, specifically because they reflect the nature of our Lord, who looks on every one of us, always, with the kind of tenderness the most loving parent lavishes on a child. We imitate that love best when we are as gentle with ourselves as we are with others.
Kindness and gentleness are certainly at the center of our cover story this month. Patty White, Carla Edwards and Gail Heider are nurses who help bring children, sometimes incredibly fragile children, into the world. When, tragically, a child is lost, these three women do their best to bring compassion and, over the long term, healing to the infants’ bereft families. To listen to their stories is to gain a better understanding of grief and caring.
Fittingly, as Bishop Burbidge points out in his column, October is Respect Life month, a reminder to employ kindness and gentleness with all whom we encounter, from children in the womb to the very elderly.
Thank you for your many kind -- and usually gentle – letters. I look forward to hearing from you at 715 Nazareth Street, Raleigh, NC 27606 or reece@raldioc.org.