Physician Heal Yourself

The Benedictine rule says that we are not our own teachers, not our own guides, not our
own standard setter, not a law unto ourselves. (Rule of St. Benedict; Insight for the Ages,
Joan Chittister p. 176)
The other morning when I was getting ready to come to the church I was about ready to turn off the television when I heard these words: Coming up: do-it-yourself psychotherapy. I shook my head and thought that I had heard the ultimate in self help endeavors. I didn’t get a chance to stay and hear the segment, however, it brought to mind a quote this quote from Joan Chittister and it related well to this attempt to 'heal ourselves.' . One of my favorite recording artists at the moment is Duffy. One of her hit singles is 'heal yourself.' Would that it were that easy! We are broken as we share relationship with others people. Our wounds and taumas don't happen in isolation, they happen because have been hurt or we have hurt other people. My experience of psycho-therapy and spiritual direction has been that the relationship with my counselor or priest has been part of that healing process in my life. Think about it for a moment. The problems that give us the most difficulty in life are those that develop as a result of the relationships we have in our life: parenting, collegial partnerships, and spousal and sibling relationships. It has been my experience that healing, also, takes place in the context of community.

Often, when folks have personal trauma in their life they begin to withdraw from friends, family and church. Isn’t that just like our human nature—we run from the very things and people that can be of help. The very nature of being a Christian is that of finding our new life in community. We cannot be a Christian without a faith community. We can be faithful, we can believe and worship God and we can be very honorable and good people, but the very nature of the Christian faith is to meet, pray and fellowship with other Christians. Whenever two or three are gathered together in my name Jesus tells us I will be among them. Yet, it also takes an community that understands themselves as a healing community and not a community of individuals.

We don’t only come to our faith community soley for what we get out of it. If we take our faith seriously (and that is always the question) then we come to our faith community because of what we have to contribute to it. God calls us to be with each other because we have something to learn and receive, but also, something to teach and to give. In a world of do-it yourself psychotherapy it is sometimes difficult for us to remember that, as Christians, we are called into community with one another.

This week when I come into All Saints I have felt the activity hum and the excitement in the air as Vacation Bible School is in full swing. Our children are forming relationships within the church that may last a very long time, maybe even into adulthood. Yet, even in this bliss of community among the children there are a few tears here and there and a few disagreements that must be worked out. By living in this community they learn how we work things out as a body of Christ. They, in their way, have things to teach adults. Their observations can be particularly poignant. This Sunday the children will be in Church singing their songs and telling us about VBS to make the connection with the rest of their community that will encourage them along their way.