The following is from Matthew Kelly’s August newsletter.  My own experience supports his thought: many people seem happy on the outside, but can be suffering on the inside.

You walk down the street, and people seem more or less to be doing OK. You meet other parents at school or church, and they seem to be doing OK. You go to work and sit in meetings with others, and they seem to be doing OK. And so it goes, everywhere we go, we are interacting with people… and we are all pretty good at pretending things are OK. But we are all grappling with a situation or a question, and some of us are suffering in deep and invisible ways.

There is so much suffering in the world.

People don’t wear signs that say… “I just lost my job,” “I just found out I have cancer,” “My husband is about to leave me and there’s nothing I can do about it,” “I had an abortion 20 years ago and it is eating away at me,” “My child is a drug addict,” or “My child is dying.”

People don’t wear signs… and some of the people who seem fine are suffering in ways that are overwhelming. All they can do is try and get through another day.

This is my challenge to you this month: Learn to recognize who is suffering. When you go to a social gathering, try to identify who is marginalized, who doesn’t feel welcome, or who is suffering the most—and try to ease their pain. Just love them beyond their pain for the few minutes you are with them.

As I reflect on the public life of Jesus, he spent so much of his time comforting those who were suffering physically, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically. Part of our commission as Christians is to continue this work that Jesus began. When we comfort people and give them relief from suffering we collaborate with God to perform a miracle.

Look for those who are suffering the most and reach out to them with the compassion of Christ.