Jesus the Healer

For the month of September, we begin a new message series on: Who is Jesus? Surely, each of us has our own answer to the question given our personal experiences, but today we look at Jesus the Healer.

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Ephphatha is a word that fascinates me. It means be opened and is used by Jesus when he heals the deaf man in the gospel. This man, being deaf and unable to speak, resulted in virtual isolation from the community. He was cut off from hearing others and from speaking with others too.

So, when Jesus healed him and spoke the words, be opened, he literally tore down the walls that kept this man from the fullness of a healthy life. The way to life was opened by God. Now, he could hear the laughter, the conversations, the sacred stories after having been blocked from doing so. Now, he could hear the history of God’s loving relationship with Israel, the accounts of God’s action on behalf of His people, he could hear Jesus speak of God’s love for him.

Original sin, described in the book of Genesis, has been the traditional understanding of the cause of our separation from God, the moment the human person isolated himself from the source of life, love and grace. Locked into our own wills and deaf to the voice of God, we can really become self-absorbed and can seem to be unable to break free from the bondage to the self. The result is sin – bringing sadness, fear and anger, and an emotional, spiritual and physical destructiveness inflicted on ourselves and those around us.

To get beyond that, we need the healing touch of Christ – to be healed from our physical, spiritual and emotional brokenness - and to hear the words, be opened! This is a direct command from the Lord and has the power to release us from our bondage to all those things that separate us from God’s love.

At our baptism, the priest or deacon signed our ears and mouth with the cross and announced, Ephphatha. With that sign our ears were opened to hear the word of God and our lips were opened to proclaim, under the power of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus Christ is Lord. Each day we are called to live out the truth of our baptism and nurture the graces of that sacrament.

Saint Bonaventure, in his life of Saint Francis of Assisi, describes how at prayer in a lonely place one day and full of sorrow for his sins, the joy of the Holy Spirit suddenly came upon Francis and his heart was expanded and the horizons of his mind were enlarged. This was an ephphatha moment for Francis when the graces of his baptism flowered freely and abundantly in his spirit. This is the grace we seek – that the spiritual energies in our soul, given to us at baptism and confirmation may be released to flow freely and powerfully within us – and heal us from all of our different infirmities.

We all experience distress in all sorts of ways—as sadness, anxiety, addictions, unproductive obsessions, unwanted compulsions, repetitive self-sabotaging behaviors, physical ailments, boredom, and various angry, bleak, and agitated moods.

What helps relieve this distress? What helps a person to heal? For the believer it’s our faith in Jesus the Healer … a faith that encourages and supports the other resources available to us in this modern age – counseling, medication, self-help groups and the like. While there are plenty of other tips for healing, here I offer just a few:

1. Be yourself

We must be our authentic true ourselves – the person God created in God’s image and likeness. This means asking for what we need in prayer, setting boundaries, having our own beliefs and opinions, standing up for our values, and developing our adult faith life as we listen to the voice of the Lord.

2. Invent yourself

We all come with attributes, capacities and proclivities and we have been molded in a certain environment. But at some point, as well-adjusted adults we must say, Okay, this is what is original to me and this is how I have been formed, but now who do I want to be? We reduce our emotional distress and find healing by deciding to become a person who will experience less distress: a calmer person, a less critical person, a less egoistic person, a more productive person, a less self-abusive person, and so on.

3. Love and be loved

Part of our nature requires solitude, prayer, alone time, and a substantial rugged individualism. But this isn’t the whole story of our nature. We feel happier, warmer and better, live longer, and experience life as more meaningful if we love and let ourselves be loved. The man in the Gospel was unable to love and be loved until the Lord opened his ears and touched his tongue. We must ask for the same.

4. Flip the anxiety switch off

Rampant anxiety ruins our equilibrium, colors our mood, and makes all the already hard tasks of living that much harder. There are many anxiety management strategies we can try—breathing, relaxation, exercise, and so on—but what will make all the difference is if we can locate that “inner switch” that controls our anxious nature and, deciding that we prefer to live more calmly, flip it to the off position.

5. Deal with circumstances

Circumstances matter. Our economic circumstances matter; our relationships matter; our work conditions matter; our health matters; whether our nation is at peace or occupied by invaders matters. Many circumstances are completely out of our control, but many are within our control. We can change jobs or careers, we can end a relationship, we can reduce our calorie intake, we can stand up or keep quiet, we can do exactly as much as we can do to improve our circumstances. As a result of those improvements, we will feel better. Healing requires that we rely on our faith while we take real action in the real world.

Isaiah the prophet reassures us in quoting the LORD who said:

Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not!

Here is your God, he comes with vindication.

With divine recompense he comes to save you.

It’s the message to each us from Jesus the Healer – be strong, fear not, our God comes to save us.

Spiritual writer CS Lewis once said:

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending!

Find comfort in those words … as we begin anew …

Blessings!

RSM

Before We Become a Very Sad Statistic Too

Friends:

In the Houses of Worship section of the Wall Street Journal last week, columnist Elliott Kaufman wrote an article entitled, Chabad Ministers to Jews of No Religion. I found the article interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that a similar article could be written about Catholics and that really concerns me! Kaufman cites the Pew Research group with a number of frightening statistics regarding our Jewish brothers and sisters and their religious practices. The most noteworthy parts for me are: - Twice as many Jewish Americans say they derive a great deal of meaning and fulfillment from spending time with their pets as say the same about their religion; -Only 12% of American Jews attend weekly services … Jews express Judaism through culture instead and from this emanates a different kind of “involved” Jew; -Only 7% say that being Jewish is important to their lives and its unlikely that number will grow in the next generation; Citing the Pew study, the article continues, outlining how Jews who participate in Chabad activities like dinners, prayer services and more, actually seem to be more involved. (Chabad is family oriented.) What about us Catholics? Pew studies have also been conducted measuring Catholics and engagement, and the numbers are abysmally frightening. It really seems to me that we have come to the crossroads. What is the faith that we will pass on to our children? What will our parishes look like? How will they survive? Our faith tradition has been promoting the “domestic church” for centuries … in the home is actually where faith was celebrated, learned about and shared among inter- generational family members. In many homes, it still is. Supporting and promoting a life of faith in the home is more important now than ever. With parishes and Churches struggling, with our leaders causing scandal and giving bad example and causing more and more doubt daily, and with a structure that at times seems to be further and further from the Gospel message of Jesus, its time for every Catholic to think seriously about what does it mean to be a Catholic and how committed am I to learning about, living and spreading the Good News daily. By necessity parishes will change, churches will close and the numbers of those ordained will continue to fall … despite that Jesus promises that “I will be with you until the end of time.” How? Let's think about this as individuals, as families and as a community of faith. What can we do? What should we do? To continue to bring the Good News of salvation to the world. I’m interested in your thoughts … and our collective efforts … before we become a very sad statistic too! Blessings! RSM

Restorative Rest

Surely, no matter how we choose to exercise it … we all agree that the human person needs rest. Whether it be at a beach, in the mountains, on a long drive, or just relaxing with a good book … our beings need to be away from the day-to-day busy-ness, to find a place of respite and rest.

Rest was actually ordained by God … Genesis tells us that on the last day, God rested, thus we have the Sabbath. And while so much of our society seems to work contrary to this principle, the church provides and encourages restorative rest, not only for vacation times, but every week. There is no doubt that we’ve all had a pretty intense year so rest should be at the forefront of our minds these days.

It’s interesting to note that while Jesus invites his disciples to rest, you’ll notice that they don’t get really that opportunity. Instead, Jesus and his disciples respond to the needs of the throngs coming to them. Seeing the crowds and their manifold unmet needs, Jesus, Mark reports, has compassion on them. He puts his plans for rest temporarily on hold and goes out to them, healing, curing, feeding, and teaching all who are in need.

While our Gospel today starts off sounding a note on the significant need for rest among our labors, it quickly shifts gears to move instead to talk about compassion and need. And these two – compassion and need – always go together. Which is why it’s always important to be in touch with what we need and how we can be better ambassadors of compassion.

What do you need to feel whole, to be happy, to lead fulfilling lives, to make a difference in the world, to feel like you belong and to have a place to call you own? These are important questions, the answers which will undoubtedly give us not only greater insights into our selves, but more restorative rest. I say this because if we are not honest with what we need, we spend so much of our time and energy chasing that which we want, but not necessarily what we actually need. And clearly, as the song goes, you can’t always get what you want … but Jesus reassures us that he will provide what we need!

In today’s passage and others like it in Mark, the needs seem clear:

1. People who are sick want to be healed;

2. People who are hungry want to be fed;

And certainly, there are those manifold needs in abundance all around us.

I believe that despite what things might look like on the outside or in appearances, some of those needs are right here in our congregation, and at other times they are spread throughout our communities and surely are so evident in our world. Our supplements to the summer bulletin have been sharing the goals from the United Nations … if you take away anything from reading these pages, you will agree that there are a lot of needs in our world!

Our faith community, our gifted parish, can and should play an active role in meeting those concrete needs on all levels. Interestingly, some studies measuring the vibrancy of a parish resulted in two concrete factors that seemed to characterize those congregations identified as vibrant. Those characteristics reported were (1) a substantial and sustained commitment to the community (like food banks, after school tutoring, various social ministries, etc.) and (2) a willingness to experiment with forms of worship.

I would say that we possess both of those marks of vibrancy, but there is always room for improvement. And in the midst of our relaxing summer, the staff and I continue to evaluate how we can become even a more vibrant parish community, not only for you who already are committed and regularly attend and support, but perhaps more importantly, how we can reach the unchurched … those who have walked or run away in alarming numbers.

The Gospel tells us that Jesus first responds to the crowds because they seem lost, like “sheep without a shepherd.” It’s interesting to me that at first, he doesn’t cure or feed but instead he reaches out and meets them where they are. He encounters the people of his day teaching and preaching and opening up to them the power and possibility of life in God’s kingdom. It’s a good model for us too. In order to meet the needs of our community, we will first need to meet people where they are, as they are, who they are … then and only then can we share the Good News of salvation. Otherwise, we will meet with frustration, futility and fights.

The Wall Street Journal this weekend has a very large article written by Francis S Rocca entitled: Is Pope Francis Leading the Church to a Schism?. And while I will write more about this in the coming days, I do believe that the Pope, in the spirit of Jesus, is challenging our Church to meet people where they are, as they are, who they are … and that challenge makes some people anxious.

In the end, I wonder how can the church help our people to live more abundant lives? … because in the end, that’s what we’re talking about: abundance. Not just happiness, or belonging, or a sense of purpose, but something bigger that includes all these things and also includes justice and peace and community, with one another and with our God. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus calls this the kingdom of God.

So amid these lazy days of summer, I think that’s the work we need to do – to reflect and ponder and pray about what we need as individuals, households, and a community to flourish as God’s children put on this planet for a purpose, and then, more specifically, to think about what each of us can contribute and what our church can do to support all of us in moving in that direction together.

I know that working together, praying together, with mutual respect and cooperation, we will all be surprised and moved by what we can accomplish to meet the needs of this world that God loves so very much.

RSM