Father John J. Lombardi
"And may your spirit and
soul and body be kept sound" (I Th 5:23)
Archbishop Flynn recently told story of Mr.
Goodreau of Louisiana traveling by horse and
buggy which was hit by tractor trailer. After
the accident and later at a trial to settle the
claim a judge asked Mr. Goodreau what happened.
He said he was hit by the truck and later a
state trooper saw the wretched scene and horse
dying in road, barely breathing; so he pulled
out pistol and shot the horse out of misery.
Then the trooper, with smoking gun came over to
the exasperated Mr. Goodreau and asked: "And
just how are you doing?" We all need relief from
pain, misery and suffering. We need God to heal
us.. We need His Divine Love.
Abp Flynn also said in
the retreat to priests-that of all the requests
Jesus made in St John ch 17-it was not prudence
or wisdom or power to hold onto, but to remain
in God's love: That is what our retreat is
about-and the Christian life. Particularly we
are called to say with the seeking disciple for
the Lord's healing: "Lord I am not worthy to
have you come under my roof but only say the
word and I will be healed" ( ). Notice: seek the
Lord, His healing, ask him to heal you-and
others-and receive and remain in His Love--LET
HIM IN! …
Always remember the
following mediation during this retreat:
Trinity's Divinity Heals by Unity, Five simple,
holy words. Repeat and remember them by first
saying them on one of your hand's five fingers,
impress the words and meaning within, deepen by
intentionality the communion and meaning.…By
being in the Trinity, we sick souls can be
redeemed, healed, relieved….Image yourself
within the Trinity's Divinizing unity… That
great prayer by Jesus Christ in Jn 17: a la
Douay Rheims version, where Jesus prays to the
Father for us in the world, forms the basis of
our meditation and is a religious redemptive
rhyme: Jesus prays-"I in You (the Father), You
in Me that they (disciples) may be perfected in
unity"…Jesus brings us into the Trinity's
perfecting love if we seek, ask and allow Him:
we must be receptive. St Gregory Naziazen prayed
"I have not even begun to think of unity when
the Trinity bathes me in It's splendor. I have
not even begun to think of the Trinity when the
unity grasps
me. On this retreat we
will not only DO things and practices, but we
will also learn to Be-to practice mindfulness
and simple living and holy silence, to rest in
God's Divine Being, to focus and deeply
-re-learn our Faith and God's Love, and even
un-learn certain bad ways of living to be
healed.
The purpose of this
retreat: to learn and, more importantly,
assimilate all the ways of healing God gives to
us and our Holy Catholic Church. We will
discover them in these days They are many and
are meant to treat and temper the whole
person-body and soul A man in a treatment center
once said to me, "In reflecting I realized I
needed to confront and heal past memories-events
before moving on. I needed to integrate and
become a whole person and not leave the past
out. I'd repressed the past. It was easier to
run. Now it's time to heal…"
Key: imaging within,
impressing within soul, God's flowing, Divine
Light, His celestial Beauty and Holiness, His
radiance and "Energies" (St Athanasius, Pope
Benedict in "God is Love" use this term of God)
shining thru our bodies, minds and spirits -this
isn't just for New age people! We must cultivate
receptivity, openness, vessel-hood-receiving and
innocence to be healed and filled with God's
Light and love-Trinity's Divinity Heals by
Unity…
Recently I was running
across Mt St Mary's campus and ran by a lady in
front of the library. She greeted me. I dropped
off the books and ran again across her path.
Getting in my car she was walking by my path and
said-"Slow down, stop and smell the roses." It's
what I need to constantly hear-and many of us:
our lifestyles are sometimes a blur, a rush and
cause sickness, stress, spiritual strangulation.
Jesus Himself said: "Look at the lilies of the
field, the birds of the sky" (Mt. 6). He-God is
counseling us to be healed by His creation. This
is a way of healing as we will find out-along
with the Sacraments and other sacred ways.
Another key to this
retreat is holistic healing, as in:
- Body="Take a little
wine for the sake of your stomach" (I Tim
5:23) -- In Book of Revelation in Heaven "The
leaves of the tree are for the healing of the
nations" (22:2). God heals us thru material
creation-sometimes by herbs, sometimes pills,
sometimes physical therapies-do you use these
rightly, wisely. Catholics believe in
holism-using god's material creation for
health and healing.
- Mind: Think on the
higher things (Col 3)…Let this Mind be in you
which was also in Christ…" We must begin or
continue to train our minds from unruliness
and anxiousness to crispness and trust in
God's Mind. Correct our thinking so is in more
control and synthesis with our Bodies…Let us
take note of how, in our own tradition and
now, today, how so many are making links
between meditation and health and healing. We
must also cultivate the right-holy attitude
toward our health, sickness and healing. If
you keep people in depression this is harmful;
fears is an enemy, and teaching healing shall
come by way of positive stimulation and
separation, not fear.
- Spirit-Soul: This is
God's supernatural gift to us "Are you not
aware you are God's temple and that the Holy
Spirit dwells within you?" (I Cor 3:16)…"For a
perishable body weighs down the soul" (Wis
9:15) … "And may your spirit and soul and body
be kept sound" (I Th 5:23). These verses
denote we have, are, supernatural-God-created
aspect of ourselves which is like an
energy-desire-spirit which animates the body.
Right morality, spirituality and living all
hurt or help the soul.
- Mind thru Matter:
These two cohesive phenomenon work in
permeation and mutual compelmtariness. Not
Mind over matter (as if one is better than the
other) or mind or matter (duality) . We must
avoid dualities so as to fully take God's
creation and Spirit, and the Incarnation
seriously as He intended. Healing shall come
from an equilibrium of the two and we must
make a conscious choice of the mind and will
to either overcome suffering, or (eventually)
embrace and befriend it (let it become a
teacher and not an enemy) and unite the
suffering to Jesus and His Power which will
transform .
- Mind and matter: are
not opposed, but need to be seen together,
synthetically Some Ways to Suffer and Be
Healed Lovingly: "Mystical suffering"-I take
joy in my sufferings for I fill up what was
lacking in Christ for the sake of the body"
(Col 1:24) . We transfer our suffering to
Christ, others and "deflect" it from
clinging-pre-occupying self. N American
Martyrs, Victim soul Bernadette suffered for
other sinners, Fatima children …Triple A =
Attract sufferings, Accept them, atone =offer
it up Sublimation-Always remember: I Pt 2:21=
"Christ suffered for you and left you an
example to follow in His footsteps." How do we
imitate this and how do we help sufferers to
offer up suffering?-- Redemptive suffering,
attach suffering to Christ's, and "fill up
what was lacking in Christ" (Gal 1:24)
Think of others'
suffering/martyrs and compare to yours. This
will help "lift" you out of any excessive
egoic attachment.
Mind and matter- are
not opposed, but need to be seen together,
synthetically Spiritual Direction: talk
therapy is popular today (talk shows, courts,
various therapists, etc). This shows in some
way we need an-other person to help us
objectively to see our faults, sins, hurts.
They can help us in ways we cannot.
-Others-in
community-relationship -a man went on pilgrimage
to New. Orleans and was tremendously impressed
by youth, joy, enthusiasm, zeal, hard work of
others, esp the youth, as much as anything else
on the pilgrimage. Their liveliness,
conversation, joy healed and strengthened the
pilgrim-volunteer. The Mystical Body with many
parts/persons (I Cor 13) is meant to help weaker
parts, complement and offset one's own issues
and pre-occupy mind so as to alleviate stress
and pains.
Healing Masses, laying
on of priestly healing hands, calling of the
Holy Spirit, and the Bl Sacrament heal in
community. We must go with right disposition.
Environment events, nature, signals of
"other-ness" and takes mind of preoccupations.
The mountains, lakes and sea can all be indirect
sources of God's re-creative Love and Mercy.
Abp. Flynn said he never expected God so much
since his days at Mary's Mtn. Read some poetry
on God's Creation, esp Gerard Manley Hopkins
"God's Grandeur",etc.)
Reconciliation:
apologizing to someone or graciously receiving
this from another and then changing life's
situation. Pilgrimage: Specifically asking for a
favor-healing form God and going on a journey,
leaving behind sin and embrace Him as crucial.
Service Work-Works of Mercy--get de-focused from
self by 1-helping others; 2-thinking of other's
pains (starving/suffering people/hurricane
Katrina), 3- purifying relationships-from ones
which are harmful to more harmonious and holy
and healthy. These kinds deter stress and
spiritually impress. Saints and esp St
Hildegarde of Bingen -see below but this holy
woman knew a lot about herbs and healing
medicines, cures for body and soul, harmonic
music and healer of soul, the humors and
hormones and energies of the body, and has been
capitalized by diverse groups-we orthodox
Catholics should capitalize on her and her
wisdom too!
Exercise=joggle the
inner bodily life and re-shuffle it to stimulate
body, mind soul-they all affect ea.
Other-holistic health.
Walking-slowly or
briskly enervating body, mind and spirit.
Talking-group
therapy-such as cancer talk groups, spiritual
discussion groups--not keeping things in,
repressed, but sharing similar stories. Natural
foods-a good healthy diet not toxic= rise of
organic food industry. Sweating out whether in
sweat lodge or sauna it is healing body mind and
spirit by sweat and diffusing toxins of body.
The Paschal Mystery denotes Christ's Sacred
Death and Resurrection. By His Death he embraced
and subjected all suffering, pain and death to
Himself; by His Glorious Resurrection He shows
us Triumph over all suffering and death (and
gives us hope) and also demonstrates the
Glorious Radiant Body . We Catholics need to
assimilate all the riches of these mystical,
spiritual symbols by vicarious suffering thru
Him with Him and in Him, and we must also foster
delight and future triumph by thinking of the
radiant , ethereal, mystic body of Himself and
ours that He promises to give us if we are
worthy of him, and thereby treat our bodies and
souls NOW as worthy "temples.
Saints & Healing…St John
of the Cross was imprisoned in cell by brother
Carmelites and wrote one of most famous love
songs-spiritual treatises-"The Spiritual
Canticle" = Salvation out of suffering. Think
about it: suffering can be productive or
abductive-you make the choice!.
The saints show us
heroic suffering is transformed by God in living
virtues heroically. A virtue is a power,
disposition within soul, body and mind. Here is
the "spiritual formula" for cultivating virtues:
effort+grace+knowledge+persistence=a virtue. All
elements are essential. Effort=exert will power
and keep trying to become holy, and seek virtues
to heal. Grace=God's actual graces at prayer and
actual time of need. Sanctifying grace = God
within us. We cannot do it alone-heal or become
holy. Knowledge= we need to know actual proven
ways, disciplines, practices to overcome hurts
and embrace holy lifestyle. Persistence= virtues
and healing don't always come overnight. We need
to get back up and keep forging up the mountain
So, virtue of healing,
longsuffering-Gal 5:22= constantly asking and
allowing God to come, be within soul so He is
our preoccupation . As Ethan, a student-man of
Mary's Mountain said: "Jesus promised not to
heal the body but the soul-'Lord, say the word
and my soul shall be healed.'".
The Holy Spirit as
Source of healing. Do we rely on Him to heal our
memories, past experiences, current troubles?
John of the Cross indicates that in deep prayer
the Holy Spirit purifies and cauterizes deep
caverns of darkness and attachments to free us
to love and be loved. Sometimes we just need to
embrace/befriend our sickness, disease and not
fight it but learn from it. A pilgrim once asked
me an important, beautiful question: "How can I
suffer more with love?" Consider the following:
- "Christ suffered for
you and left you an example to follow in His
footsteps" (I Pt 2:21)-we need to remember we
are given an opportunity to imitate Jesus in
our suffering!
- Become a co-atoner:
like Saints Therese and Bernadette a la St
Paul Col 1:24 ("I take joy in my suffering for
I fill up what was lacking in Christ")-so help
redeem and save souls: accept the suffering,
then send the graces of your
suffering-"spiritually telegraph" them to
others, the poor, imprisoned, a relative or
friend.
- Redemptive suffering
means it will heal and teach you-if you let
it-suffering can be redeeming if we place it
in context of Christ and His Cross and
redemption.
- St Teresa of Avila
said on her deathbed that she wanted-"more
crosses." The Cross and suffering is like a
"spiritual sandpaper" which will rub and shine
and fleece us to more important things.
- Joan of Arc, 19 year
old teen while being burned to death-martyrdom
asked while standing in flames responding to
"last request": "Bring me a crucifix." The
crucifix, Rosary, other sacramental's can
concretely help remind us of aids to suffering
in love.
- St John of the Cross
counseled, simply: "Fix your eyes on Christ
alone." Not on self, on Christ, His
Passion-become selfless and allow soul to be
filled/complemented by His Passion. Abp Flynn
the most important fact about human suffering
is to remember the Paschal Mystery-Christ's
Passion, Death and Resurrection.
We cannot always
understand rationally our suffering or
another's, but placed in the context of Christ
entrance into, and embrace of suffering, and His
eventual triumph over it, we can cultivate the
virtue of hope= trust in trials. (this is yet
another reason why regular-frequent mass
attendance is so important!). … Friend-be healed
and be saved by God's Healing Love!
Read other reflections by Father John J. Lombardi
