An Infinite Love and Mercy

By Sister Damaris Fortuna

Area Organization Adviser

At the April 2022 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson taught us, “Some trials are deeply private burdens no one else can see. Others are played out on the world stage.”¹

This reminds me of the experience that I had with a good member named Sister Edna who was in my Gazcue ward. She was a person who was always smiling and full of enthusiasm for life.

One day she had an accident while riding her bike and, to her surprise, she unexpectedly slipped off the bike bringing her body silently to the ground. The fall was a strong blow to her body and they rushed her to the hospital. There, they discovered that the fall had caused extreme damage to her liver and other vital organs, and it was necessary for her to go into surgery. All the families and the members in the ward were worried about our dear Sister Edna.

It was just Sister Edna and her husband in their home at this time because her daughter was serving a mission in another country and her son had just joined the U.S. Navy.

As the days passed, the general infection from the accident caused the deterioration of her health and she went from one hospital to another for various surgeries. The sisters of the Relief Society would go to the hospital every day to bring her comfort and assist in her care. When the doctors had to forbid visits because of her delicate condition, the Relief Society sisters waited at the door, praying and waiting for encouraging news. Every day we prayed and fasted to invoke the powers of heaven.

One of the sisters shared her personal experience of this event. There was an evening when she had gone to bed very concerned about Sister Edna’s critical condition. She prayed fervently while imagining the tremendous physical pain Sister Edna was surely feeling. As she thought about this, she also felt Sister Edna’s indescribable pain in her own body as though she was the one who was hurt and beaten internally. This sister had so much love and empathy for Edna that she experienced for a moment the pain that Edna felt.

Later, thanks to prayers and medical interventions, Sister Edna made a miraculous recovery.

This experience has remained in my mind ever since. I imagined this sister’s love for our wounded Sister Edna and thought, we are imperfect, but because of our love for another person we are allowed to experience their pain as if it had happened to us.

Although this can’t possibly compare to the magnitude of the pain Jesus Christ suffered for us, it was because of His immeasurable love for us that our Brother suffered indescribable pain on our behalf.

In Alma we read, “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.”²

Jesus Christ took upon Himself all the pains of humanity, the pains of every man and woman who lived, who lives now and who will ever live. He felt the pain of the one who is sick and fears an uncertain future, He felt the pain of the one who cries because he has to bury a loved one, of the one who cries because of deception, of the one who suffers loneliness, of the one who suffers depression, of the hungry, of the helpless, of the misunderstood, of the repentant sinner. And so, the only pure and perfect man on earth, took the pain of all mankind. His physical and spiritual pain was so great that He bled from every pore of His body.

“And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”³

The sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ is the greatest show of love to all mankind. Thanks to Jesus Christ, we have the gift of eternal life, which is the greatest gift of God for His children. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”⁴

“The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”⁵ His love does not depend on us, His love is always there. Wrong decisions can lead us away from the Father and the influence of the Holy Spirit, yet God, as a loving father, continues to love us and desires to forgive us, because He wants us to return to His presence. He listens to us when we pray, communicates with us through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, speaks to us through the holy scriptures and through His holy prophets.

It is important to know that we can turn to Heavenly Father in prayer and know with certainty that we will be heard, just as the prayers on behalf of our dear Sister Edna were heard.

What a blessing it is to know that we have a Father in Heaven, “Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.”⁶

I am infinitely grateful for the love of God and Jesus Christ for all humanity, I am grateful for their sacrifice as an act of love, from the depths of my being, “I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.”⁷