Thoughts which drag me to the cross…where I find peace?

17 God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. 18 People who believe in God’s Son are not judged guilty. Those who do not believe have already been judged guilty, because they have not believed in God’s one and only Son. 19 They are judged by this fact: The Light has come into the world, but they did not want light. They wanted darkness, because they were doing evil things. 20 All who do evil hate the light and will not come to the light, because it will show all the evil things they do. Jn 3:17–20.  NCV

As unconsoling as this might sound it needs saying that healing is seldom without pain–a pain St. John of the Cross frequently refers to as a “cautery.” Healing burns, stings, wrings tears and often leaves on feeling very weak. Yet if healing comes from the Lord, it is never without hope of recovery. We need this pain, this discomfort, to receive healing fully.

It is a thoroughly Christian impulse to combat suffering and injustice in the world. But to imagine that men can construct a world without them by means of social reform, and the desire to do so here and now, is an error, a deep misunderstanding of human nature. For suffering does not come into the world solely because of the inequality of possessions and power. Nor is it just a burden from which men should free themselves.

Oh, help us, Lord! while here,
To know the ways of peace;
The Saviour’s name to love and fear
Till time with us shall cease;
That we may join that glorious song,
And mingle with the ransomed throng.

St John of the cross knew his Greek, for his reference to the burning nature of healing and cleansing us from sin comes from the word we get cauterization from-the sugeical process of burning the flesh to “melt” it back together. In ancient days this was done by pouring alcohol and maybe a little gunpowder on the wound, and lighting it off.  It sealed the wound, stopped the blood flow, protected it from infection and hurt like hell.

Today it is done with special tools, and if you are sedated, it would still hurt like hell.

The gospel in my readings today show the problem, they show the damage of sin, the inability to believe because of the love for evil and sin, partially because sin has such a strong grip on man that we cannot see the existence of God, and therefore we don’t know healing is possible!

But we need the healing, we need the Light of the world to eliminate our darkness. We desperately need this healing…

but it will hurt….

NOt as much as it hurt the Lord who provides the cure, but cutting away, healing us and protecting us from sin will hurt… because we have to let God into the depth of our lives to do so. We have to, as Luther puts it, be helped by the Lord, and then we can join in with the massive group, which praises Him for what He has done, the impossible thing He has done.

But that tis the goal – to know the peace of God which can only be known as we are relieved of the burdens of sin, shame, guilt, resentment, jealousy and anger.

But we need God to do that work, we need God to pay the price for it, and when we realize He has already done that, by sending Christ to embrace our darkness, to swallow up our sin, then we rejoice, we are relieved, we have a hundred thousans ways in which we are amazed….as we are flooded with peace.

This is our faith…. this is what we depend upon, why we have hope, and how we know we are loved.

So relax, and know this will only hurt a moment…

Fr. John Hanson, Coached by Josemaria Escriva, (NY, Scepter Books, 2024), 61

Luther, Martin, and John Hunt. The Spiritual Songs of Martin Luther: From the German. Translated by Thomas Clark, Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 1853, p. 140.

Ratzinger, Joseph. Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. Edited by Irene Grassl, Translated by Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth, Ignatius Press, 1992, p. 63.