It is of my opinion that the word "pain" is overused. Possibly (probably) this is because I have used it myself so much this summer, but as I hear it now in a presentation of the story of the prodigal son, it seems awfully kitschy.
There is an interesting thing. At the end of this thing, the father says quietly, "Welcome home, son. Welcome home." and it is intended to be greatly dramatic. I don't find it to be so. But the odd thing is that despite my failure to take the whole thing very seriously I had "chills" run down me when this highly dramatic (sarcasm, if you couldn't tell) part went by. Is this some sort of automatic response to, say, the lowering of the speaker's voice? Some other aspect, perhaps? How is this response elicited against my will (or, more accurately, without it)? Perhaps I was only apathetic on a conscious level, and something subconscious brought the chills. I suppose that is possible, but I, of course, deny it.
It is very intriguing that I could be affected so without a conscious emotional involvement.