Lord Heal Me, Heal Me Now

In this Sunday’s Gospel from St. Mark we see that Jesus opened that which was closed, “. . . he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, ‘Be opened.’”  Jesus heals the deaf man and opens his ears and also opens and loosens his tongue from his speech impediment.  This is a wonderful miracle.  Imagine for a moment, whether deaf from birth or turning deaf sometime in your life and then to have your hearing either restored or given to you, wow!

All of us crave for this kind of healing, all of us want to be made whole, and all of us regardless of age suffer at least some small impediment or large one.  Human beings  struggle right from birth, some have severe allergies, prone to many colds, some are born or acquire terrible diseases from youth, others grow sick with age.  On and on we can go with our problems and sufferings.  Therefore, all of us crave a little healing.

Healing, however, comes in many ways, but usually centers on body, mind, and spirit.  Jesus wants to heal us completely, not just from physical imperfections, but even imperfections in our faith lives which touches the spirit and mind.  Yet, we are not always ready for healing.  There are things that hold us back.

St. Augustine is well known for saying, “God heal me, but not yet.”  How true that saying is.  All of us struggle with being closed, just like the deaf person, however, being deaf or becoming deaf is not a choice, for the most part, but being closed to God’s healing of spirit is a choice.

Sin is to be closed.  I close myself off from Truth.  There are truths about me that I am not willing to accept, because I have chosen to live the way I do and it seems good to me or justified, however, it is my own justification.  This state of being is one that is closed and for Jesus to open what is closed will take plenty of grace and finally my acceptance of Truth and opening myself.

Opening oneself is scary, because it forces me to humble myself, to become vulnerable, and to give ultimate trust to someone besides myself, in this case, Jesus.  But why not trust him, Mark himself writes, “He has done all things well.  He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”  If Jesus can control nature itself, can he not help me spiritually?  That is unless I believe I need no help.  Yet, we do need help.  So instead of, “Lord heal me, but not yet,” why not and simply, “Lord, heal me, heal me now.”

FJ