The space between
We
had a little guy in the community for people with intellectual disabilities,
with which I am connected, who used to get mysteriously ill. Moses was severely
brain damaged after being abandoned in the forest near Chinhoyi on the day of
his birth. He could not speak or help himself in any way but he made his
contribution as a thermometer of the health of the community.
We
would take him to the doctor but the doctor could find nothing wrong. He just
got ill without cause. Without cause, that is, until we discovered the cause.
When people in the community were not getting on and there were quarrels or
tension Moses would immediately pick it up. It affected him so much that he
became ill. He could not express the tension within him in any other way. When
it finally dawned on the community that this was the cause they took pains to
settle their differences before they got out of hand. And Moses stopped getting
ill.
There
is an incident in the book of the Acts of the Apostles (3:1-10) where Peter and
John go up to the temple and on the way meet a man who was crippled from birth.
He looked to them for alms but Peter said to him, “I have neither silver nor
gold but I will give you what I have.” Then he took the man by the hand and helped
him to stand up. “Instantly,” we are told, “his feet and ankles became firm and
he jumped up and went with them into the temple.”
The
incidents are very different: Peter did one type of healing, Moses another. But
they were both moments of healing. And healing is what people long for. The
most obvious type is physical and modern medicine has made incredible progress
in this area. It has also made amazing strides in mental health. There is a
third area that resists healing: personal and national relationships, Cures
abound but we do not want to try them.
Blaise
Pascal once said, “The sole cause of
man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” We
are unable to be still, silent, alone. We are unable to enter into the depths of
our spirit and listen to the voice that is there. We call that voice
‘conscience.’ And the Spirit of God
moves there for those who are attentive. In that quietness we can go deeper
than our hurts, our hatreds and our prejudices and recognise, with St Clare of
Assisi that, “we are challenged to search the world and rediscover the presence
of God in the space between people.” Healing takes place in that space. Do we
want to enter it?
29
June 2014 Feast of SS Peter
and Paul
Acts
12:1-11 2 Tim 4:6-8,17-18 Matt
16:13-19
