I’m going to tell you a true story. A dear friend called one day to tell me her brother Jim had just been diagnosed with brain cancer. The family was in shock. Doctors told them the cancer was inoperable but, as expected, recommended a treatment protocol to contain and reduce the size of the tumor.
What followed were weeks and weeks of debilitating chemotherapy and radiation. After a few months Jim was having trouble with cognitive tasks. He still went to the office and was determined to run his business, but he started missing details. His partners worried about his judgment and decisions. My friend began preparing for a call asking her to come home. Every time the phone rang she froze for a moment before answering. It had now been several months and Jim was growing weaker and less coherent by the day. The treatment wasn’t working—and he was barely eating.
What happened next was astounding. Her sister Annie called. Jim had gone to see his doctor. The cancer was gone!! Completely—gone! The doctors had no explanation, but Annie—a devout evangelical Christian—was convinced God had heard and answered the prayers she and everyone in her church had been praying! God had healed Jim.
My friend and I just sat with each other in the presence of this miracle—half believing, half wanting to believe—while doubt lingered for both of us. Could this be true? Was Jim really healed? Would another phone call dash the wonder and awe of this moment and bring everyone back to REALITY where instantaneous healings don’t occur? Four years later Jim continues heading up his business and running 3 or 4 miles every day. To his doctor’s wonderment, there is no sign of recurrence.
Our readings today give witness to healing miracles. They can instill a treacherous expectation that if we pray hard enough or have faith that’s strong enough, our prayers for observable, physical healing will take place. The flip side is that if those prayers for healing aren’t answered we may fall into the trap of believing that either prayer doesn’t “work” or miracles don’t happen because God doesn’t care—or worse, doesn’t exist.
Someone once said “we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” The human experience orients us toward the physical realm as though it’s all there is. Religious literature of all traditions focuses the mind and imagination on that which can’t be seen. It attempts to help us remember our spiritual origins and destiny while we play in this physical dimension—because it’s all too easy to forget who we are, where we came from, why we’re here and where we’re going.
Miracle stories evoke a resonance with Mystery, and this resonance keeps us on track. We can fight it. We can dull it. We can place all kinds of barriers around it to prevent disappointment when hopes, dreams and expectations are dashed. But we are made for Mystery. We are made to long for wholeness, beauty, harmony, creative freedom and flow, connection, fulfillment of purpose and meaning.
We are spiritual beings who know eternity and are therefore dumbstruck and frustrated by barriers and limitations that prevent us from pursuing our goals. Illnesses and infirmities of every kind, broken bodies, broken minds, broken societies, churches, and governments—broken systems—cry out for healing.
The human spirit intuitively knows HEALTH and WHOLENESS to be the truth of its soul. We move toward it like moths to a flame. We can’t allow ourselves to get hung up on physical or even mental healing as though it is a test of God’s presence and activity in our lives. Instead, we open a space for Mystery, for the unseen meaningfulness of twists and turns on the journey. Then we continue to pray, to tell God what we need, and ask for healing—healing for ourselves, our loved ones, our world.
And after that—let go. Let go knowing that all prayer for healing is answered at the level healing is needed. We have so little awareness what those levels of healing really are. Yet our spiritual instincts tell us WHOLENESS is our destiny. All roads lead there eventually. All roads lead toward HOME—toward God who is WHOLENESS ITSELF. Prayers for healing are ALWAYS answered. They are answered at the level healing is most needed, and may not be obvious to anyone, including us.
In the Gospel today 10 lepers are healed of physical deformities so all can see and the priests can testify they are “clean” and whole. It is a miracle, and miracles still happen. But that’s not the point. The point is faith—faith in a God who is with us in brokenness and pain, and who is ever ready to heal. The Scriptures are full of hands-on healing—use of water, oil, touch, food—that allow people to FEEL something physically while something even deeper is happening spiritually. Sacraments do the same. They usher us into the realm of Mystery by honoring the body as gateway to the soul. So we ANOINT, we TOUCH, we EAT bread, DRINK wine. The spirit is nourished as the body’s senses are loved and embraced.
In a moment we will ANOINT those who wish to receive the sacrament of healing. The church especially encourages those with serious physical or mental health challenges and those facing surgery to be anointed. The sacrament is open to everyone in the same way that our Eucharistic table is open. The leper who returned to thank Jesus was a Samaritan—an outsider loathed by Jews—yet Jesus made no distinctions. Here we also make no distinctions. The sacraments belong to the ONE we follow, not to us. You approach HIM to be anointed, to be fed. As Christ’s followers, as Jesus’ hands and feet in this world, we surround our sisters and brothers and let God’s love and healing heart flow through us. In the process we, and our world, are also healed.
Rev. Toni Tortorilla, Sophia Christi Catholic Community
October 13, 2013, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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