Why are some people healed and others not?
This past week a majority of our daily gospel readings feature Jesus healing people, which begs this CCQ question, right? We all know people who suffer chronic pain, pray fervently, and yet no relief comes and others who are healed. This disparity reminds me of this excerpt from Fr. James Martin’s book Jesus: A Pilgrimage:
“I’m writing these lines in the middle of a painful bout with carpal-tunnel syndrome, something that I’ve had for the past 20 years…the onset came suddenly during my studies to become a Jesuit. Within the space of a few days, I developed stabbing pains in my hands and arms, and for the next two months could barely turn a doorknob or hold a pencil without feeling like someone was plunging a knife into my wrists.
At the beginning of this minor medical saga, many doctors found the condition a diagnostic challenge. After a year of visiting a variety of hospitals, clinics and physical therapists, it was determined that I had either ‘repetitive strain injury,’ ‘carpal tunnel syndrome’ or an ‘autonomic nerve disorder.’ ‘Or some combo,’ said one doctor with a shrug ‘surgery wouldn’t work and the symptoms probably wouldn’t subside.’
These days I deal with this persistent problem, as do many who live with far more serious chronic illnesses: by managing it…This decades-long struggle is an entrée to the world of sadness, discouragement and even the despair that attends illness…What can compare to a person’s desperate desire to be healed from a serious illness or the unquenchable thirst for the end of physical pain?’
A few years ago I might have said that God is equally present to each of us, but it seems that God somehow moves closer to those who need help. Perhaps we are more open to God’s presence in our lives when we are more vulnerable; with our defenses down God can more easily break into our lives. One friend, at the beginning of her cancer treatment, reported a palpable sense of God’s presence, which manifested as a sudden onset of calm. She said she found it helpful to return to that “place” in herself where God had given her calm, and try to “live from” there. Rather than move towards discouragement over her illness, she would return to the calm that she felt was a gift from God.
There is, however, another place for the sick person. There are times when the suffering person feels that nothing can change, that all is hopeless, that the pain will never end, that a “normal way of life” is no longer possible. Even though I have not suffered from a terminal illness or a life-threatening condition, I do know that dark place. I have spent time there.
Jesus asks the paralytic ‘Do you want to be made well?’ Jesus might be saying to him, ‘Are you ready to let go of your identity as ‘the paralyzed man’? ‘Have you given up hope or do you still have faith?’
God asks the same question to those who may have given up in other areas. A broken marriage, a miserable work environment, and overwhelming financial difficulties, can lead us to despair. We can experience a spiritual paralysis that needs to be healed. But buried deep down under the despair is hope.
Hope is like the Pool of Bethesda. For years it was covered by dirt, gravel and trash - thought to be lost – or a myth. But it was always there, waiting to be uncovered, waiting to be restored, waiting to be seen again. It took work, but it was found. This is how God comes to us—asking if we still want healing, if we still believe, if we still have faith. Even while we dwell in despair, God excavates our hope and asks us, ‘Do you want to be made whole?’”
Send your Crazy Catholic Question to Lisa Brown at dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at www.crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com
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