A conversation on freedom, healing, and the power of touch.
Hospitals often reveal our human needs. Within their walls, we witness firsthand our vulnerabilities. The strong and the weak, the wealthy and the poor, white and black, all share the same fate. We lie on uncomfortable beds, moved about in ways we might not have tolerated elsewhere. Strangers troop in and out of our space or privacy, wearing clothes we would rather not want to see.
In hospitals, we surrender our freedom to our human nature’s limitations. We face the reality that we aren’t in charge of our lives. We share a common yearning for healing as strangers wheel us through eerie corridors, emergency rooms, and ICUs; glancing at faces that remind us of possible worst-case outcomes. In these settings, we come close to the universal desire to find answers. We seek a miracle, a savior.
No one, not even the most stoic, wishes to make the hospital a home. We all yearn for quick healing and the chance to leave. To put it point blank, we all want to get out of there as soon as yesterday.
The Need for a Savior
The hospital situation serves as a metaphor for humanity’s condition and brokenness. The illness that brings people to hospitals parallels the sin that leads to spiritual unfreedom and the prison of lack of joy. Sinful conditions and spiritual brokenness call for healing from our heavenly physician, Christ.
Witnessing the joy of freedom as people walk out of the Confessional, liberated from sin and spiritual unfreedom, is striking. As a priest who has seen this over and over again, it warms my heart. Remarkable indeed! For me, those moments surpass the joy of someone leaving the hospital cured of illness.
Addressing Our Brokenness
Some of our brokenness is social and structural or systemic. The people of Israel experienced social and systemic brokenness during their exile in Babylon. They were taken to a place they didn’t want to go and forced into painful and humbling conditions. Freedom, that precious gift of God was stifled, and they couldn’t live as they should.
The above scenario is comparable to the pains of slavery years ago and the ongoing slave-like conditions, child labor, and human trafficking lurking in our neighborhoods every day without our awareness. Or the prison of abuse, entrapping many whose thirst for affection unwittingly sold them out to the mean abuser on a platter of gold. They are stuck, lost, and hopeless. Many vulnerable individuals are groaning within walls soundproofed by human wickedness. No one hears, and no one notices.
The compassionate Lord responds: “Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you'” (Isaiah 35:4).
The exile story reflects the human condition in need of a Savior, Christ. The lesson of the exile story applies not only to groups but also to individuals, as seen in the New Testament miracle in Mark 7:31-35.
The Power of Touch
Mark 7 describes the man Jesus healed as deaf and with a speech impediment. He needs a Savior. Though his condition is biological and not his fault, spiritually, it represents our needs, too. He is like anyone living in spiritual need and unfreedom, unable to hear, enjoy, or proclaim God’s saving grace.
Not hearing God whisper with those inspiring nudges of grace is simply starving of life’s luster. Conditions that prevent us from hearing or listening to God’s Word are dire.
The Lord uses sensory gestures—touching, seeing, spitting, lifting his eyes to heaven, groaning—to connect with individuals and demonstrate compassion and his power to heal and save. “He himself bore our sins in his body… By his wounds, you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24, see Isaiah 53:4-5). The Lord fulfills the promise of the messianic era, as referenced in Mark 7:35 and Isaiah 35:5-6: “He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak” (Mark 7:37).
What is your need? Are there circumstances that bind you in unfreedom, preventing you from hearing God’s whispers and proclaiming his grace?
Are there things that steal our joy, leaving us in exile, desert, or wasteland? What calls for Christ’s redeeming grace? What painful past or sinful condition dulls our spiritual senses, closing our eyes to God’s love in ourselves and others?
Responding with Compassion
The Lord’s gestures teach us the power of touch, affection, true love, companionship, and socialization. Consider times of loneliness or neglect. Think of those who care, whose simple gestures lift your spirit. How does that feel? Do you wish to pass it on?
People need those who notice them, who show affection, whose gestures declare, “I see you. I recognize your pain. I care.” These actions heal, too, and bring warmth and comfort to our spiritual journey.
What situation makes us insensitive to the poor and vulnerable, responding not with compassion but with indifference? What makes us value possessions over people, treasure profit over human beings, or make policies for economic gains over the people whose sweat racks in the numbers?
Like in the Letter of James (2:1-5), what keeps us from seeing the poor with the same dignity as the wealthier individuals who receive our respect? What makes us pay less attention to others for whom our smiles could have made a difference, especially when we can? Are there blind spots that make us unaware of conditions requiring our resources, passion, and commitment to advocate for justice?
These situations call for a healing touch and a redeeming grace. We urgently need God’s saving grace to hear his call and respond accordingly. Be Christ for others.
I pray that God grants us spiritual awareness, freedom from sinful conditions, and the power to pay it forward. Amen.
Readings for Sunday: Isaiah 35:4-7; James 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-35
