Healing is Peace

In this final Epiphany week, we celebrate the descent of the Sun Spirit, the Son of God into our midst. From the starry heights he came down to us. And when Christ’s Sun like power comes close to our souls, like fruit ripening from warm rays, we are healed, we are ripened, we are made whole.

In our gospel this week (John 5), we hear of the paralytic by the pool in Bethesda. After many years by the pool, The Son of God comes close to this sick man and asks him if he would like to be made whole. The man complains. All too human! But then Christ speaks the word, ‘pick up your sickbed and walk!’ And he was healed.

And yet, why didn’t Christ say just get up and walk. Why did he need to carry his sick bed?

Healing is something that happens on the inside. We may also be healed on the outside but often not fully. The man who picks up his sick bed and walks shows us that healing is an inner power to be able to get up, walk and carry. Healing is breaking out of our paralysis and carrying our weaknesses, our ailments, our trials with peace. Because it is His peace that makes us whole. Therefore, it is not so much what we are given, but how we meet and carry what we are given that reveals our closeness with The Spirit.

Dear Friends, in our time where so much emphasis is placed on bodily health and material wealth as signs of blessing and connection to god, let us not fall to this temptation. Rather, let us trustingly open our hearts to His warm Sun power even when the sky is full of clouds. Then, in His rays, we can find the strength to pick up our sick beds and walk, knowing that wholeness is feeling Christ’s life in our hearts no matter our handicapped appearance, no matter what burdens our destiny demands.