Healing is not freedom from suffering, but freedom to suffer.
This is what my experience at Our Lady’s Healing Center has continued to teach me, through both my own healing journey and walking with my Program Guests.
For me, true healing looks like Jesus on the Cross. Bruised, battered, broken, open wounds that gushed forth from His side blood and water – an ocean of mercy – an endless source of compassion and love, which is our strength in times of sorrow, pain, and suffering. He was free to suffer even the worst and cruelest humanity had to offer.
He willingly embraced all this suffering, as He offered Himself to the Father on our behalf. He did not deny His cross or the insults, hardships, indignities, rejection, torments, abandonment, and betrayal. He embraced them all willingly. He spoke only when necessary and looked upon all of humanity with love, mercy, and compassion.
Jesus did not need healing – He is Healing Itself, but He is the perfect example of how a healed man (or woman) exists in a broken and wounded world. He is Mercy Incarnate, and through His wounds, we are invited to be completely free to suffer as He did. And only in relationship with Him, can we do this with, in, and through Him. Because the ultimate healing is not found in freedom from suffering, but in being free to suffer.
We cannot escape suffering in this life. It is, in a sense, one of the few things guaranteed. Jesus told us so.
“In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33)
But in, with, and through Him we can suffer well; we can be “other Christs.”
We don’t have to be afraid of suffering, and we don’t have to suffer alone. And when we are truly free, we can even thank God for our suffering!
We can live in the ocean of mercy He offers to us in His Divine Heart. We can allow ourselves to be tossed about in the waves, not fighting the current but allowing ourselves to be pulled by it, willingly and trusting, even in the storms, the squalls, and the tsunamis of life. For even these times come from the same source, the Source, our loving, merciful, and Omnipotent Lord and Savior. It is Our Father in heaven, Who is the sea itself.
In suffering and joys, in pain and blessings, the depths of His Mercy and love remain calm and constant, even as the storms seek to disrupt the surface. The storm clouds that pour down rain, the lightning, the thunder, the winds that form the waves that toss us to and fro – they too are Him. They are His waves – for He allows all.
Whether it is His Divine or Permissive will, all is from Him. And in that trust, we find our joy, and we can be grateful that we are never without sure footing – we are never alone. We are never outside of His loving care and concern. We are His. He is ours.
And in this knowing, this understanding which is beyond all human comprehension, we can then become free to suffer (in this world) as He draws us deeper, as He allows us to experience, even though through a veil, life in the next.
Then all suffering becomes gift. We can rejoice even in pain and suffering, for the Glory of God is revealed in all things, ways, circumstances, and moments of life.
“Is it no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)
In addition to being free to suffer, one becomes free to experience true joy.
Similar to Christ’s peace (John 14:27), it is not joy that the world gives that He gives.
This being free to experience true joy is a “detached” joy. It does not depend upon a lack of suffering or trials in life. Instead, it is a joy that we experience deep within as we suffer and experience trials. And many times this joy is even greater in times of suffering and trials than outside of them.
It is the “unfelt joy” that St. Therese speaks of. The joy of St. Paul, who praised God while He was in prison (Acts 16:25). The joy that St. Lawrence was filled with, as legend says, when he was being roasted, he joked with his torturers, saying, “Turn me over. I’m done on this side.”
It is the joy of Our Blessed Mother, even as there was still great uncertainty about the future, she proclaimed in her Magnificat, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior.” (Luke 1:46-47)
It is the joy, like Christ’s peace (Philippians 4:7), that surpasses all understanding.
It is a joy that is found in Christ, and Christ alone.
It is the joy that made St. Peter jump from the boat and run towards Jesus, even as the disciples were pulling in the fish that they had caught (John 21:1-14). St. Peter’s joy was found in Jesus, not in the abundant fruit that came from obeying Him.
Jesus, alone.
In Him, we become free to suffer. In Him, we become free to be full of true, detached, and everlasting joy!
If you’d like to learn more about Our Lady’s Healing Center, please visit OurLadysHealingCenter.com or reach out to me at ldurant@ourladyshealingcenter.org or 512-699-6921. May you be immersed in His Healing graces!
*Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition.
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