There’s an old story about a man who’s walking down the street and falls into a hole. A doctor walks by and the man yells up: “Doctor, help me I’ve fallen in this hole, and I can’t get out!” The doctor takes out his prescription pad, writes a prescription and throws it down the hole.
A priest walks by and the man yells up: “Father, help me, I’ve fallen in this hole, and I can’t get out!” The priest writes out a prayer and throws it down into the hole.
Finally, the man’s friend walks by. The man in the hole yells up: “Joe, help me, I’ve fallen in this hole, and I can’t get out!” Joe jumps down into the hole with his friend.
The man stuck in the hole, says to his friend, Joe: “Why did you do that? Now we’re both stuck in this hole.”
Joe responds: “I’ve been down here before. I know the way out.”
We all need a friend who knows the way out, the way to heal.
Everyone is broken and hurting at times, not to mention that we live in a broken world; but we aren’t meant for this world. Jesus tells us in the Gospel: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete” (John 9:11). We are called to be “an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song,” as Pope St. John Paul II said in Australia on Sunday, November 30, 1986. What happens when joy is hard to find, and our song becomes anything but Alleluia? Wounding happens in a broken world with broken people; wounding comes from trauma. During this month of Mental Health Awareness, it’s important for us to know we have a way out.
Trauma happens when someone is supposed to show us the love of God and they do not, or the love they offer is distorted. From our hurt, lies begin to be whispered to us by others and ourselves, or by the evil one, and we start to believe them. We set ourselves up for self-fulfilled prophesies that “prove” our lies to be true. We put up false senses of security to protect our hardened hearts.
Shame and fear accompany wounds and lies. The evil one rejected God’s mercy and love and wants us to do the same. Shame and fear are the tools he uses to keep us from offering hope to others or to receive hope ourselves. As the words of a song remind us all: “It’s ok to not be ok.”
Vulnerability is a dirty word for some, but it shouldn’t be! We aren’t called to be vulnerable at the same level as everyone we meet, but instead we are called to be vulnerable. Vulnerability is showing our hearts and souls to another person and asking them to hold them. And above all, it is most necessary to be vulnerable to God.
In this weekend’s first reading, Saint Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit and the leaders of the Church decided not to impose any unnecessary burdens on the people—only what was truly essential. Keeping this in mind, we are encouraged to do the same: to be mindful of not placing unnecessary burdens on others, and to try to ease the burdens they already carry. The ultimate desire that our God has for ALL of us is given to us in the words of our Savior in today’s Gospel, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”
God Bless,
