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Reflection on Healing by Michael S. Bell Many dictionaries consider cure and heal as synonyms because they have shared meaning: to remedy a hurt or otherwise set right an undesirable condition. However, as was made apparent during our Wednesday evening talks, some of us feel an important distinction between these concepts. 'To cure' refers to a temporal action that yields relief, whereas 'to heal' refers to a more fundamental process that offers hope. This instinct about a more profound nature of 'healing' makes sense linguistically when we consider that the English word "heal" shares etymological roots with the words "whole" and "holy." As was noted in our evening discussions, a doctor may administer a drug, perform surgery, or set a bone, but it is the God given nature of our bodies that must complete the actual physical process of mending; psychoanalytic insight may help us realize our emotional injuries, but it is our sacred heart and mind which must collaborate within ourselves and with others to complete the process of reconciliation; and many addictions are not necessarily physically solved, but rather we overcome them spiritually through surrender, re-cognition, and right mindfulness (cooperation) in a soulful community. Healing, in these cases, is more of a process than a destination; more an interactive affair than a solo occurrence. Nonetheless, at some point in our lives, we've all prayed for a specific fix to something. "God, please take this from me." Scripture certainly supports the legitimacy of this sort of petition. In the written Word, there are stories of amazing 'cures' from conditions such as blindness, deafness, demonic possession, and paralysis. These acts were conclusions to physical ailments that had caused much suffering, for sure; but I believe they were/are more than that. To be clear, I have faith that such instances of miracles can and do occur - praise the Lord! However, this past year, as some of my close personal and familial relationships have been re-ordered, as I've changed jobs, as I've uprooted and made a move across the country, and as I've deeply contemplated my vocational call, the more process-oriented type of healing of body, mind, and spirit has my attention. With Easter eyes right now, I perceive the living Word to be illustrating, through these miraculous cures we read about, invitations to new life in Christ - to see things that I've been blind to, to listen to what I've not been able to hear before, to get up and move beyond what has kept me trapped or frozen in place. So, this season, as I ask for and receive the fullness of God's healing grace, I'm renewing a deeply nourishing relationship with the Holy Spirit with faith and hope that through this love, and through contributing to the health of our community, I, too, will be resurrected in a sense. This draws me back to my recent thoughts about our healing prayer ministry. When our team prays 'for' someone, as Avery Brooke says in her Healing in the Landscape of Prayer, "It's not our compassion that heals, it is God's compassion. It is not our words of prayer that heal, it is God using our words and our hands and the energy flowing through us [emphasis added]." "Us" here, for me, means all of us - the person seeking healing, the person offering prayer 'with' them, and the entire community witnessing this ministry during the Eucharist. That we support this form of healing ministry in such a prominent place during our community worship invites us all into remedying hurts and setting right undesirable conditions through faithful surrender, reconciliation, collaboration, and mending. Emboldened with Christ's love, through an enduring faith in the power of healing, we each and all shall, indeed, overcome. Thanks be to God! Copyright © 2007 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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