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'The Kennebec River - Bath, ME'
Note: In this presentation, "wholeness" refers to becoming-whole, not a final state or destination. The journey is, paradoxically, to become that we are. The 'template' of wholeness is within us, our birthright through kinship with Life. This inner wholeness is like an echo within us. Hence, listening to it is what often urges a person to seek a spiritual path. One way the wholeness speaks is in interfacing with our brokenness. Hence, feeling our unwholeness itself is the voice of wholeness.
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Saying: The Way is a way of healing, for we are all broken - unwhole. We can never say, "I've arrived." We are arriving, that is all.
Gospel of Mark 5.25ff (GNT) -
There was a woman who had suffered terribly from severe [internal] bleeding for twelve years, even though she had been treated by many doctors. She had spent all her money, but instead of getting better she got worse all the time. She had heard about Jesus, so she came in the crowd behind him, saying to herself, "If I just touch his clothes (or, hem of his garment; tassel of his prayer robe), I will get well (lit., be made whole)."
She touched his cloak, and her bleeding stopped at once; and she had the feeling inside herself that she was healed of her trouble. At once Jesus knew that power had gone out of him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
His disciples answered, "You see how the people are crowding you; why do you ask who touched you?"
But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. The woman realized what had happened to her, so she came, trembling with fear, knelt at his feet, and told him the whole truth. Jesus said to her, "My daughter, your faith (or, trust) has made you well. Go in peace (or, blessing), and be healed of your trouble."
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For the woman, the garment, a signifier of something more than it, represented hope. She needed contact with it, for she trusted the garment was a channel of Grace. The clothing was for her a conduit for what Jesus embodied - Spirit's creative power. She may not have touched Jesus out of custom, for women were not to touch rabbis. Or possibly, due to the crowd, she reached out and grabbed what she could get hold of. Here we have a reversal - usually Jesus does the touching, now this hemorrhaging woman touches.
We, too, are unwhole. The woman in the story is you and me. We seek wholeness, for our nature is wholeness. Many go to what leads from inner harmony and, so, into more fragmentation. Like this woman, left destitute due to seeking healing through doctors, we can discover that our efforts for inner healing have led us to more desperation and more hopelessness. Our cultures offer many escapes from wholeness; it seems, also, most religion does little to meet this deeper need for harmony and peace.
Who would have expected holding to Jesus' robe would have been adequate to the woman's need. It was - yet, not without her trust. Without her trust, the story implies she would not have reached out to touch and, so, she would have left unwell. Jesus says, "My daughter, your trust has made you well."
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In 1995, during my professorship in religion, a couple came to the college to meet with the ministry students. They spoke about meditation. They had started a prayer house near Dubin, GA, called Greenbough House of Prayer. This site was dedicated to living a contemplative life. I was much impressed with what they said, and I planned to go to Dublin and meet them onsite.
I did not go and meet them immediately. As so often happens with us humans, life events occurred that led me months later to visit Greenbough. I needed to suffer more to become ready to seek their help. Like the woman, I felt the need deeply for a way to wellness within. I needed something to hold on to, to manifest trust in Spirit. I needed help, and something about Faye and Steve and their words, as well as the path they taught, drew me to seek guidance. I, then still in the church, knew the church could not be the place to seek this help. My relationship with the church, in fact, was central to the inner suffering.
After visiting Greenbough, I took classes in Centering Prayer there. Once a month, we would gather over a weekend and practice silence. I completed the training. Later, in September 1995, I was vowed by Greenbough to a contemplative life.
Greenbough had become for me Jesus' robe. It had become a place and people of healing. Simply walking the grounds there resonated with wholeness. My life changed dramatically, a whole new course to walk, due to reaching out and trusting the power of healing through a place, a people, new ways of devotion, and vows reflecting the wisdom of many others who have lived the path of contemplative wisdom.
So, making contact with the means of healing is our act of trust. We are in a cooperative relationship with Grace. We are in partnership and friendship with Life.
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"Jesus" in the story symbolizes what we approach to connect with for wholeness. To speak of "Jesus," we need to release "Jesus" from the confines and dictates of religion. "Jesus" represents any means of Grace. For many persons, religious practices will be central to the Way for them. For others, so-called secular means may be the Way for them. "Jesus" denotes the embodied-Sacred transcending the secular-religious polarity.
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Various means of spiritual practice are simply ways to reach out to Something greater than us, the Whole we belong to. For me, Contemplative Prayer became a means of reaching out. I learned how sitting in Silence heals. I learned of Pure Prayer, prayerfulness the mouth cannot speak, only the heart.
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We reach out to become one others can touch - "touch" here does not mean merely physical but more. "Jesus" represents our potential to be a means of Grace. We receive healing to become healers. Yet, to say "healers" can be misleading. We do not heal; we can be a means of healing, however. In walking the Way, we become invitations for others to find a place to reach out and receive the joy of wholeness. In time, our very presence communicates Grace. This, indeed, is central to the contemplative life - to be a means of Grace simply by living in communion with Grace.
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Last, we cannot see the Power that heals. The woman did not see the Power, but she felt it, and Jesus felt the Power coursing from his body. We can feel and see the healing within us. Likewise, we trust in the same Power. We discern the efficacy of means of Grace by how Grace heals us, and we, thereby, grow in being means of Grace, so healing, for others.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2021
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, especially Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the teachings and imagery in the poetry.
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