HOMILY SUNDAY 13 – B

On Being Wounded Healers

(Wis 1:13-15, 2:23-24; 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15; Mark 5:21-43)

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Have you ever seen the movie “Elephant Man?” That movie is a vignette of the gospel story we heard today and carries a powerful message.

Place your complete faith in Jesus; come to him for forgiveness and healing and become a source of healing for others.

Mrs. Kendall, a famous British actress, starred in the movie Elephant Man. The “Elephant Man” was a horribly disfigured and ugly man in England years ago who had become a circus sideshow. She went to see him and presented her hand. He put out his less deformed, left hand. Without saying a word, she gently refused to shake that hand, but rather waited for his other hand, the one people usually use for greeting others. Finally, after some long minutes while he comprehended what was happening, he brought out his maimed hand and they shook hands. It was the first time he had ever held a woman’s hand and that was the beginning of his personal transformation. Healing happened for him, through that touch of healing acceptance and dignity.

There are two wonderful stories of faith and healing in the gospel. Jairus, a synagogue official, believed enough in Jesus’ power to heal that he left the beside of his dying daughter, sought Jesus out and pleaded with him to “come and lay hands on so that she may be made well, and live.” Now that is faith.

The unnamed woman suffering from hemorrhages had heard about Jesus, believed in him, and was convinced if she just touched the hem of his garment, she would be healed. Her was courageous faith, because she was unclean and not supposed to touch anyone. What is striking is that Jesus noticed her faith and felt her touch. People were jostling around him, but they were curious, without real faith, and nothing happened to them. It is the same with us – if we attend Eucharist just out of duty, nothing will change, but if we come with deep faith, we will go away transformed.

It is interesting that the girl was twelve years old, and the woman had suffered for twelve years. That is a deliberate touch by Mark. The girl was dying just before she could birth new life. And the woman could not give life with her flow of blood. Jesus was not a miracle worker – he was the Son of God who worked miracles for a purpose – to reveal who God was to us. Jesus never cured a toothache or headache, or a ruptured appendix. All his healings had to do with the senses – with hearing, seeing, speaking, walking – and giving life. The blind could now see God’s creation; the deaf could now hear God’s word; the mute could now proclaim God’s praise; the lame could now serve God more fully. The miracles revealed a God who was not bound by human rules and regulations, but responded to human need with mercy, forgiveness, compassion and unconditional love.

Jesus came with a two-fold mission – to redeem and to sanctify, to forgive and to heal. We can come to him to receive his forgiveness for our sins and find new life. But more than that, we need healing of our sinfulness, that which makes us sin. Step six of the Twelve Step program asks us to get ready to remove all our defects of character. What are those?

We are born into a wounded world that begins to affect us even before we are born. The inevitable lack of love from imperfect parents, or perhaps even abuse or trauma, creates an insecurity in us. That spins off into painful emotions of anger, fear, jealousy, bitterness, etc. If we don’t deal with those, we develop negative attitudes like false pride, stubbornness, tendency to judge others, self-righteousness, etc. These are our defects of character for which we need healing.

We have a choice. We can choose life or death. If we are humble, admit our sins and received God’s forgiveness, admit our defects of character and receive healing from them, the result will be peace and joy, both gifts of the Holy Spirit we can claim as our own, and not just passing emotions. We become grounded in God’s love for us, so secure in God’s love for us that we can let go of all those negative forces in our lives.

If we are wilful and resist God’s love, then we will live in denial, lying to ourselves, and start blaming others. We will then project onto others what we are afraid to see in ourselves. Worse, we may develop some passive-aggressive behaviors as we push back and try to justify ourselves. We will probably find someone in our lives we can scapegoat and blame for all our problems. In the end, we stay stuck, prevent healing, and will probably end up totally depressed. Let us make the choice for life, love, peace and joy.

Once we have experienced that forgiveness and healing and have been set free to love and be loved, we can become a source of healing for others. Jesus told the apostles he was sending them just as the Father send him. The Father send Jesus to forgive and to heal, so he is sending us out on that same mission, to forgive and to heal.

We are to forgive anyone who has hurt us in any way, especially by sharing our hurt feelings with them as a way of forgiving them, instead of fighting back, fleeing or freezing. And we are to heal others by our mercy, compassion and love. We can bless them, affirm them, try to understand them, and healing will happen, as it did for the Elephant man.

I remember a teenager at the La Plonge High School in Beauval who actually cried when he participated in an Affirmation Brainstorm years ago. He had never heard so many positive statements about himself in his lifetime, and it was almost too much. We need to believe in the healing power of love expressed through words and through touch.

The Eucharist is Jesus laying hands on us, touching us, forgiving and healing us. And we are touching the hem of his garment because we are gathered with the Body of Christ to worship him, receiving his forgiveness and healing.

May our celebration strengthen our faith in Jesus to forgive and heal us, and empower us to go out, wounded healers forgiven and healed, to bring his unconditional love and mercy to a world so much in need of that love and healing.