Its flu season. And with it has come coughing, sneezing, aching, so many of us feeling lousy. But still, we bring ourselves, sicknesses and all, to the altar. We come to the altar for the Spirit, we come because we find The Healing Medicine.

And yet, even after communion our sickness remains. For we pray ‘Oh Christ, sick is the dwelling into which you are entering, but through your Word my soul becomes whole.’ This prayer does not say that my dwelling becomes whole, it says my soul becomes whole. The dwelling remains sick. For in communion we can all experience that we are not all at once made into a perfect being, free from all illness, magically and completely transformed. And even if we do experience healing by His power, there is always another aspect of our being that remains untransformed. For just as in our gospel today (wedding at Cana) the water was transformed but not its containers, communing with Christ in our time means to receive wholeness into the dwelling of our sickness. Communion with Christ is to be healed and at the same time be sick.

Dear friends, the Christian path means to carry His health in our sickness- His light in our darkness. And in these times when our karma has determined that division and hate will only increase, let us remember that it is not about escaping this sickness or finally solving it, following Christ means to carry His love in the midst of this dark. Therefore we can truly pray, “Oh Christ, sick is the dwelling into which you are entering, but through your word our soul becomes whole.”