But he was pierced for our sins,<\/p>\n
crushed for our iniquity.<\/p>\n
He bore the punishment that makes us whole,<\/p>\n
by his wounds we were healed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Departing from my previous practice of quoting the Gospels to give you this bit from Isaiah, because it gets at the reason this mystery is so important to me. When I was growing up my parents subscribed to Tikkun<\/em>, a progressive Jewish magazine with the slogan, \u201cTo heal, repair, and transform the world. All the rest is commentary.\u201d That\u2019s cute and I get it, it\u2019s something Christians often put in terms like, \u201cWe are the body of Christ, so we must be His hands in the world,\u201d it\u2019s true and important when its meaning is kept very limited. But it\u2019s even more important to remember that healing\u2013whether of \u201cthe world\u201d or of our own selves\u2013isn\u2019t something we can do. Thinking of it as our<\/em> task rather than God\u2019s can lead to unbearable pressure and even despair.\u00a0 It\u2019s the whole \u201cI can\u2019t go to Confession until I\u2019ve gotten myself straightened out a little\u201d thing. (And, in the political realm, you get utopianism and its attendant temptations of power and control. The law just wants to heal<\/em> you!)<\/p>\n
When I was trying to quit drinking my spiritual director asked me to picture myself being carried by Christ. As with all of his best advice, I (silently) made fun of this at first. Yay, visualization techniques, I can add this to the list of humiliating consequences of my drinking problem\u2026. But over time I found that this image of being carried by Jesus really helped me. It let me see that I wasn\u2019t expected to succeed by my own strength, which was a relief, since I am notably a disaster and lack resilience. I would not be healed by my own efforts, or by my own suffering, but by Christ\u2019s. All I had to do was surrender.<\/p>\n
That isn\u2019t nothing\u2013passion is an action, letting go is a thing you can do or refuse to do, and anyway a lot of this language is really just metaphors<\/a> which work for me but may be less helpful to you. But letting myself be carried turned out to be something I could do.<\/p>\n
This mystery is one I often pray for help with the areas in my life where I\u2019m still kicking against the helping hands, where I\u2019m still unwilling to give up and let God do His job.<\/p>\n
I wanted to post Phil Kline\u2019s terrific version of \u201cWondrous Love,\u201d from John the Revelator<\/em>, but can\u2019t find it online. You can buy it on Amazon here<\/a> for a dollar (or the whole album, which is super great). As a replacement, here is an aching slice of poetry about the Holy Wounds:<\/p>\n
Once, twice, thrice\u2013as I crept close
\nInto the ark, the nest, the bride,
\nInto the pulse, into the life, into the wounded side<\/strong>
\n\u2013Eliza Kearny, \u201cChristine and Mary\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnd fine, I like this hymn so much, so I\u2019ll give you a version from Chanticleer:<\/p>\n