Michael Lerner, who works with people diagnosed with cancer, offered this description of what he would do if faced with a cancer diagnosis. “I would pay a great deal of attention to the inner healing process that I hoped a cancer diagnosis would trigger in me. I would give careful thought to the meaning of my life, what I had to let go of and what I wanted to keep” (Dass, 74). In his poem “Fever,” John Updike, in an almost playful way, tells about one facet of the inner healing that may accompany sickness:
I have brought back a good message from the land of 102°: God exists. I had seriously doubted it before; but the bedpost spoke of it with utmost confidence, the threads in my blanket took it for granted, the tree outside the window dismissed all complaints, and I have not slept so justly for years. It is hard, now, to convey how emblematically appearances sat upon the membranes of my consciousness; but it is truth long known, that some secrets are hidden from health.
(Collected Poems, 1953-1993)
Healing is often initiated in the sickness. It does not wait for a cure to arrive. In fact, in some cases patients report a greater sense of being alive and in communion with others when they were sick. When they were cured, they returned to normal life, a life often characterized by numbness and rote obligations. Cure actually threatened their inner healing.
This is the same challenge the gospel presents, only in a quite different context. Jesus’ cures and exorcisms are signs of the kingdom of God. They both complement and embody Jesus' more explicit teachings. The Cure provides physical relief, but it is also accompanied by profound healing. Healing reconnects us to the deepest center of ourselves and through that center to God and neighbor. The flow of life and love through the intimate communion of God, self, and neighbor results in the dignity of charity. This is our ultimate purpose: ‘to serve and not to be served’ as Jesus says of his own calling in Mark 10:45.
When we might feel lost or focused on our own troubles and ills, relationship struggles or serious medical diagnosis; one of the best medicines we might take is actually to give. A great remedy for our sin and selfishness is service. Sometimes, if we need inner healing, a cure might not be what is truly needed, but could be a result of a greater good.
God Bless,
