3rd Sunday after Epiphany 26.1.14 My soul shall be healed
We have taken the centurion’s prayer and changed it slightly. Only say but the word and my soul shall be healed.
It sounds like a simple transition from servant to soul but healing a soul is likely to be a lot harder than healing a servant. The workings of the soul are much more complex than the workings of the body.
And the servant probably wanted to be healed; but with the soul we are not so sure.
Healing of the soul takes in things like desires, ways of looking at things, habits, addictions... to be healed of those things takes quite a bit of readjustment.
Would we like to have our sins forgiven? Yes.
Would we like to avoid all sin in the future? Yes to that too. Easy to want that.
And that is what a healed soul would be like. No more sin, not even desire to sin.
But to reach that state it would have to mean we live in a different way - with new habits, new ways of doing things. We may not be so glad to give up so much.
Israel was glad to come out of Egypt. It was turning its back on slavery and oppression and setting out for a new freedom. So far so good. But then after a while the austerity of the desert did not seem so appealing and some of them hankered to go back to the pleasures they were familiar with.
So in our repentance we might miss the things we used to do, the people we used to mix with, and wish we could have some of those things again.
We want to be forgiven but we also want to keep sinning, at least for some sins, where we are too attached to them. We need more healing. Say but the word, Lord.
But also help me to cooperate; to avoid resistance. If I have to cut my hand off to avoid sin (figuratively speaking) give me the resolution to do that.
If it was a matter of a physical illness we would probably cooperate with any process required.
So with the soul, we have to let the medicine take effect. To be cured of some wrong attitude or practice is going to take a certain amount of cooperation on our part, eg giving up old friends, reducing occasions of sin, joining a support group etc. We make sure that we are doing everything we can to overcome the sin, to let the grace of God work in us fully.
Over time we are changed - the way we think, the way we look at things; and now the right thing seems better than the wrong eg chastity to lust, peace to anger, kindness to selfishness.
And the new way of looking at things actually becomes our own, not just pious words, but part of us.
Our ability to want the right thing is part of the soul’s proper functioning. When the soul is healed we will see things the right way up.
If we had a choice between a healing of the soul or the body we should take the soul every time. This may be against inclination. The needs of the body are so pressing and with the soul we always think we can leave it to another day.
Jesus can heal us from a distance as He did the servant. In our case the ‘distance’ is how far we are from wanting what He wants. He can draw us closer to His way of seeing things.
He can help us to trust in Him more fully so that we are no longer clinging to the old life of sin but ready to launch out into the unknown ‘desert’.
So that once for all we can turn from Egypt and walk in trust. I don't know what is out there but I know it is better than where I have been.
It is the Promised Land. And we are going there.
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