Suffering does not diminish your dignity

When intense pain or dependence arrives, it is easy to feel that you are "no longer useful," that you are a burden, that your life has lost value. And around you, that same idea is sometimes in the air. But it is not true: your dignity does not drop because your strength drops. It shows in how you treat others. The sick, the elderly, or whoever depends on others are not "what remains" of a person: they are the same person, now needing more love, not less. And with yourself it is the same: you can ask for help, let yourself be looked after, and still count, even if you accomplish less today than you would like. Christ did not walk past the weak: he drew closer. That is the measure. Your worth is not set by your output, and precisely in weakness—yours or another's—it shows whether you truly believe it.