Recovery: Hope After Trauma Week 4 (6/27/2021)

Over the last month we have been praying on our message series entitled, RECOVER: HOPE AFTER TRAUMA. In Week 1, we thought about different types of trauma. Week 2 we looked at the notions of recovery. Week 3 we reviewed the message of hope.

As we end the series, we need to pull it all together and try to digest how our spiritual resources give us just what we need to recover from the trauma of covid, and move forward with our lives.

Interestingly, today we hear the Word of God from the Book of Wisdom:

God did not make death,

nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living ...

For God formed man to be imperishable;

the image of his own nature he made him.

Powerful and reassuring words that address those false prophets of our day who suggested that God instituted covid as a punishment for bad people. Nothing could be further from the truth! God creates us to be imperishable … in his own image he creates us … so that we can bring his image to our world, our challenged, broken, and needy world.

If you’ve ever been on an airplane … think about the safety demonstration … part where they say should the pressure change and oxygen masks should fall from the ceiling compartments, be sure to put your own mask on first, then assist a child or other … the same is true here …

First, we need to find God’s security, God’s oxygen, God’s reassurance in our lives, before we can help others recover from the trauma of covid and all the traumas of life.

The psalmist today sings the hymn, I will praise you Lord for you have rescued me! And isn’t it true? … the Lord has rescued us from the ravages of covid, gifting scientists, and health care workers, and first responders and those on the front lines of all walks of life … working together and with God’s grace … we have been rescued … but we need to honor the first part of the hymn, the part that says:

I will praise you Lord …

How can we best praise the Lord? While there are many answers, here are some great ways to praise the Lord:

1. Praise Him by lifting your hands – as many do with the Lord's prayer;

2. Praise Him with singing – our music ministry inspires us to join in;

3. Praise Him with your words – taking time to pray, every day, many times;

4. Praise Him with dancing and instruments – physically and literally;

5. Praise Him in fellowship with other believers – coming together to worship weekly;

6. Praise Him in service to others – having the Jesus in me, care for the Jesus in you!

The Gospel today includes how important the notion of touching is … In our germ conscious society, especially in these post-covid days, we sometimes hold back one of the greatest gifts we can offer to another person – the gift of healing touch. Jesus was aware of this power and usually touched the person he was healing or let them touch him.

As we move forward, in recovery, finding hope after trauma, let’s continue to find ways to touch one another’s lives, as the Lord has touched ours …

May His healing touch and our generous response be a continual source of recovery for us and all who are in need, today and always!

Recovery: Hope After Trauma Week 3 (6/20/2021)

For the last two weeks we have been listening to our message series entitled, RECOVER: HOPE AFTER TRAUMA. In week one, we thought about different types of trauma. Last week we looked at the notions of recovery. Both homilies are on my blog on the parish web site if you missed them or wish to review. Today, we will think about HOPE. They were the first two questions posed at the start of our series: What gives you hope? Who gives you hope? And I’m sure that these questions had deeper meaning during the darkest days of the lockdown, and perhaps for many, still are very valuable to think about. Hope is a positive and potent spiritual practice with the power to pull us through difficult times ... like a pandemic. Hope is usually described with light metaphors — a ray, a beam, a glimmer of hope; the break in the clouds; the light at the end of the dark tunnel. And hope is often discovered in unexpected places. During covid, my hope grew when I first started hearing the news of a vaccination … finally, the antidote, … although for many in our world, that’s still not a reality. In 1965, American psychologist Martin Seligman "discovered" learned helplessness. He found that when animals are subjected to difficult situations they cannot control, they stop trying to escape. They become passive. Human beings can be the same. If one experiences devastating defeats, a persistent situation that can't be changed, or a terrifying event that could not be controlled, then it’s possible for one to lose hope. Covid brought many of us to that point. Hopelessness can take many forms even not connected to covid. Apathy or hopelessness may be puzzling to those around us. Why wouldn't one try to get a job, make friends, eat healthier, or leave someone who is abusive? When one has no hope, any efforts to change one’s life seems futile. When there is no hope, there seems to be no energy or motivation for therapy or for any effort to change the bad situation. Unfortunately, this painful despair and resignation set up a self-fulfilling prophecy. If one has no hope, no belief in therapy, no spiritual resources, that may well be the outcome. Today, God speaks to us in the scriptures through the words of Job. In our first reading, God responds to Job from a whirlwind ... This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. Will Job get to lay out his case before God? Will God tell Job why all of these terrible things have happened to him? Not exactly. The God whom Job meets for this, the very first time is somewhat disappointing. God doesn’t seem interested in providing answers to any of Job’s questions. Instead, God has questions for Job — nearly four chapters worth of them — and no apparent answers. What we see in the Book of Job and particularly in the divine speeches in this section is the message that while personal piety and virtuous behavior may be worthwhile in and of themselves, they may not necessarily lead to personal gain or material success. This can certainly be disconcerting to us — we all want the good guy to win (and benefit) in the end. It can also be a relief, though, in that it is a very clear statement that victims — of tragedy, illness, violence, poverty, and pandemics among other things — are not necessarily to blame for their misfortunes. Sometimes bad things happen and there simply is no good reason. Let’s connect this then to covid – some lost hope because they believed that despite their goodness, their faithfulness, God abandoned them, that God was punishing them, that God was holding them accountable for something they did or didn’t do. They almost twisted the phrase to read, if God is against us, we can never win, can never recover, instead of the hope-filled one, if God is for us, who can be against us. Another way that might be helpful in understanding God’s role in all this, looking through the eyes of Job is to focus on creation. Job’s catastrophe leads him to believe that maybe the world is, at its foundation, random and chaotic. Maybe no one really has the reigns and or is at the wheel after all. What is interesting about God’s response to Job is that through the many questions, God points to the deep order and structure in the universe. There is meaning. There is some underlying structure. There is some order. We can bring all this together, covid and the things that challenge our hope in noting that in a universe created by God and in which we humans live, the real challenge is how to hold these two aspects together, that — 1) the world is orderly; 2) and tragedy doesn’t always have a clear and understandable reason. In some ways, these two aspects show very different realities that exist simultaneously. The realities of Job and God collide, and they are both true. The fact that God responds with questions, though different than Job’s, also suggests that the dialogue between them is ongoing, open and unfinished. This might be the best news of all because it’s the same for us. Even in our times of despair, in our times of hopelessness, in our times of great challenge, even when we believe that God has abandoned us, the exact opposite is true – our dialogue with God is ongoing, open and unfinished, but we have to be in the conversation. Perhaps too often we can be like the disciples in the Gospel, crying out, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And when Jesus woke, he asked them, Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith? My friends Jesus is awake now … he’s calming the storms of covid and the storms of our lives … so let’s work together to recover, to find hope after trauma … And let’s spread that message far and wide because the world really needs to hear it, and hear it now!

Recovery: Hope After Trauma Week 2 (6/12/2021)

Friends, today we continue with our message series, Recover - Hope After Trauma. Last week we took some time to look into the various meanings of trauma, noting especially that the time we spent dealing with COVID surely constituted some trauma for many of us. But we move forward. In fact, today’s second reading from Paul to the Corinthians tells us:

Brothers and sisters:

We are always courageous, although we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yet we are courageous ...

It’s this courage that spurs us on to recovery. But what is recovery? The other night I had the TV on and the opening scene from the show FBI had one of the characters say these words:

Recovery is all about surrender ... and the end result is power!

These words are so true, recovery is about surrender ... and the end result is power. As believers we are called to surrender, but surrender does not mean to give up. It means that after we have done our very best, worked ourselves using all our gifts and resources, that we ultimately surrender to the love, mercy and presence of God ... and it’s in our relationship with God that we find power!

Its interesting that when you google the word “recovery” you find so many resources that direct one to recovery from addiction ...

Addiction to alcohol

Addiction to sex and pornography

Addiction to drugs

Addiction to cigarettes

Addictions are so prevalent that according to the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, approximately 22.7 million Americans, or 8.6 % have an addiction to drugs or alcohol. And surely the stress of COVID made matters worse.

But there is hope ... and in addition to the medical and psychological resources, our faith also can assist us in our recovery ... from COVID, or any traumas and addictions we need to recover from.

But the first step must be surrender ... bringing an honest, open mind and a willingness to find that divine power that God has reserved for us.

One writer, on the darkest day of his soul’s journey said this:

I could die in addiction

I could live in recovery

Let’s decide that we will live, live in recovery ... live in hope ... live under the safety of that majestic cedar that the prophet Ezekiel speaks of today.

While there are many spiritual principles that can help us in our recovery and find a firmer rootedness in hope, here are 5:

1. Acceptance - many times in our day, and many times in our lives, things may not go as planned. Practice acceptance. That cliche sums it all up, it is what it is. Don't make it bigger than what it is!

2. Honesty - practicing honesty is pretty straight forward. Practicing honesty challenges us to tell the truth, not cover up, exaggerate or sugar coat the truth, and not to leave anything out. And telling the truth starts with telling the truth to ourselves. What are the traumas we face? How has COVID affected me? What am I gonna do about it?

3. Patience - patience is not only an advent virtue. We have become a people always moving in the fast lane and technology has only made it worse. Breathe ... exhale ... surrender. The traumas of our lives will not simply be erased ... finding comfort will take time, so be patient.

4. Integrity - integrity is honesty with a strong set of morals. We are called to practice integrity by not compromising our virtues, even when the temptation is strong, so strong its palpable.

5. Self-discipline - self discipline challenges us to be a good person even when no one else is looking. It’s the interior development of our character and the fine tuning of our souls.

The Gospel today tells us the story of the farmer scattering the seed over the land. And that seed grows, little by little, night and day, despite the farmer not knowing how. But ultimately, that little seed sprouts and grows and bears fruit, good fruit for the harvest.

So too must it be with us ... as we work to recover, to find hope after trauma, we put into place life-giving spiritual principles, not as magic incantations, but as practices that guide our lives, our everyday, ordinary lives ... Then, and only then, will we not only recover and find hope after trauma, we will truly experience the kingdom of God.

Blessings!