Many of the Mercy sisters attend the Motherhouse Eucharist accompanied by their walker or wheelchair. One exception was Sister Faith who radiated a sense of youth with her gracious smile and vibrant walk without the use of any aid. However, all that changed in an instant when she tripped on a carpet and fell head first into a wall. Eleven stitches later and a twisted knee, Sister Faith was sitting in her room; lamenting that she did not want to be a bother to her sisters and asked for prayers that she would not need any surgery on her right knee.She was humbled by all the phone calls and get-well cards from her fans throughout the country who heard about her “trip.” But her real journey was not her experience in the emergency room, but rather, a journey into her soul which she had never experience in her life.
Like most patients she prayed for a cure, relief from the pain and the desire to get back to where she was before the freak accident. Instead, she sat in her chair with her elevated leg in a soft cast and her companions were the medicine bottles, blankets, bed, water glass and the holy cards with prayers in times of illness.
Cures aim at returning our bodies to what they were in the past, healing uses what is present to move us more deeply to "soul awareness." Although Sister Faith prayers for a cure and complete recovery, she admits that she has undergone a profound healing of mind and heart. This healing that refers to the soul can happen without cure. In fact, it is often the uncured sickness that the healing begins.
When we come face to face with our disease--cancer, broken heart, layoff panic, chronic addiction, debilitating grief, our focus is redirected to the inner healing process that is triggered by our illness. At that moment, we become profoundly aware to the meaning of life, what we need to let go of and what we need to keep.
Sitting meditatively in her chair beside her bed, Sister Faith senses the witness of her bed, the family photos on her dresser, the blankets, even the snow covered trees outside his window, finally observing the truth, that some secrets are hidden from health.
Sister Faith is right. Some 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 routine. Cure of the body actually threatens healing of the soul. After a period of distress we realize that something amazing happens. We simply stop doing everything that wasn’t essential, that didn’t matter. Our illness of whatever nature becomes our greatest source of peace.
Jesus cured some, not all. He was more interested in healing; healing the soul, Sometimes, gospel wisdom tells us that an uncured body brings about a healed soul.
God prays for us as we reflect: “O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me.” (Psalm 30:2).
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who need the assistance of their walkers, canes and wheelchairs. As they look around their room and pray for a cure, help them to focus on healing the soul that comes with weakness that helps us to feel the need for God. Sometimes we think that we get nothing we asked for but despite ourselves, our unspoken prayers are answered for we are truly blessed by a God who cares.
