ADVENT WEEK 02 01 – Year II
Tee Pee Spirituality and Healing:
Optional Memorial of St. Damasus I
(Is 35:1-10; Ps 85; Lk 5:17-26)
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A man told a psychiatrist that he suffered from nightmares – sometimes he dreamt he was a teepee, other times he was a wigwam. When he asked what his problem was, the psychiatrist replied simply that he was two tents (two tense)!
Did you know that the readings today can change our life, and heal us of spiritual blindness?
How you might ask? Through what I like to call teepee spirituality – balancing faith, fellowship and self-awareness in our lives.
The first two readings are filled with hope for newness and healing. From the prophet Isaiah, we hear words like: “The desert will rejoice and blossom, God is coming to save us, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the lame shall leap like the deer, water will break forth in the wilderness, the redeemed shall walk on a holy way singing for joy.” Psalm 85 repeats that God is coming to save us, and justice and peace will prevail. Does this not fill our hearts with hope for healing and wholeness?
Then in the gospel of Luke we see it all being fulfilled – through teepee spirituality. I once owned a teepee that I would often set up at the Lac St Anne pilgrimage. One always starts with three poles to erect a teepee. It is the same with a balanced Christian life – three poles are needed also, and they are the poles of faith, fellowship and self-awareness. In the gospel incident, there is the faith of the paralytic and his friends; there is fellowship as his friends go to great lengths to assure his healing, and there is self-awareness – the paralytic knows beyond doubt that he could not move and needed healing.
This gospel is another reminder of the two-fold mission of Jesus as the Messiah – to redeem and to sanctify; to forgive and to heal. Here we see him doing both – forgiving and healing.
This passage is important for us because in so many different ways, we are all paralytics, all in need of healing. May I suggest that one area of healing is our spiritual blindness, our lack of self-awareness. We can’t heal what we can’t feel, and we can’t heal what we do not acknowledge. Our eyes need to be opened to who we are and our need for healing of especially our painful emotions and negative attitudes like false pride, selfishness, excessive need for power and control and stubborn self-righteousness that we might not even be aware of.
Some examples will illustrate. Years ago, I participated in a group exercise in which we were shown a gym with ropes strung across it at shoulder height. We were blindfolded and told we had five minutes to find a key. After a few minutes of following a rope and bumping into others going the other way, I thought it could not be a physical key taped to the rope – it had to be a trick, perhaps a saying, so I offered “helplessness,” “powerlessness,” “humility,” “cooperation,” etc., but did not find the key. One sensitive person did. He ran into a wall, started to cry and when asked if he was okay, replied that he needed help. That was the key – asking for help! I had thought of many words, but I didn’t ask for help. That was when my eyes were opened – I was going through life relying on my own power, and not really asking God, or others, for help, and that awareness led to some healing for me.
Another time my eyes were opened was after a pastoral team meeting at the hospital in one community where a brother Oblate and I had decided to co-pastor the parish. I could see that he was agitated, and when we dialogued marriage-encounter style, I read these words, “At the meeting today, I felt that they would do what you want anyway, no matter what I said.” I was shocked. This was the first time in all my life and ministry that I became aware of my tendency to control, to give the impression that I was in charge here, and that was hurting a brother Oblate. Now that I was aware of this, I could humbly think about this, share it with others, pray about it and experience healing of it.
I travel a lot, and in one parish, some parishioners expressed to me their frustration with their pastor, who is very controlling, dictatorial, makes decisions on his own, gets angry when anyone suggests a different way, and wanders off on other topics than the word of God when preaching. The people are very hurt, feel put down and cheated, and some are even staying away from worship. I can only hope that somehow, this pastor’s eyes will be opened someday, and he might be open to healing for himself, and enjoy a better relationship with his parishioners.
As Richard Rohr told us during one of our retreats, “You are who you are, what are you afraid of?” That really hit me, because at that time, I was afraid of myself, and that if others really got to know me, they wouldn’t like the person I was – probably because at that time, I didn’t really love myself. Even that saying led to some healing for me.
There is a saying that might help us in this healing journey: “Name it, claim it, don’t blame it, tame it and then you can aim it.” In other words, once we have experienced healing ourselves, we can help others on their healing journey.
Today the Church invites us to honour Pope Damasus I, who was born in Rome about 305. His father, who was likely of Spanish descent, was a priest. Damasus also became a priest and in 366 was chosen pope, an office he fulfilled until his death in 384. He presided over the Council of Rome in 382 that determined the canon or official list of Sacred Scripture. He spoke out against major heresies in the church, including Apollinarianism and Macedonianism, and commissioned St. Jerome to translate the Bible into Latin, a version known as the Vulgate. He helped reconcile relations between the Church of Rome and the Church of Antioch, and encouraged the veneration of martyrs.
The Eucharist is an experience of teepee spirituality, of forgiveness and healing. We celebrate our faith in Jesus Christ, we do so as a community gathered in fellowship, and we are aware of our sin and shortcomings in the penitential rite and just before communion as we profess that we are not worthy for Jesus to come under our roof.
May our celebration today open our eyes to our need for healing, and bring us that healing through teepee spirituality – faith, fellowship and self-awareness.
