Mtr Mary Trainor

Fear of healing

Dear friend,

In the 1970s, living in self-imposed exile from church, I nonetheless sought encounters with God.

Besides listening to the hymns of Elvis Presley—which I have mentioned before—I found Cowboy Church of the Air on a favorite Los Angeles radio station. It was my God experience for a long while.

The show was hosted by Stuart Hamblen, considered radio’s first singing cowboy. Hamblen shared stories and sang sacred songs, some of which were his own. One of my favorites, arguably his best and most popular: It is no secret what God can do.

***

Mark’s Gospel today offers what, in my mind, is possibly the greatest healing story, that of the Gerasene demoniac, banished to roam the tombs. Defying restraint, he wanders in the misery of possession and isolation.

As the wild man of the tombs, he terrifies people. They feel unsafe. But then Jesus sends the man’s demons into a herd of 2,000 pigs, who run off a cliff to their deaths. Everything should be okay now, but it isn’t. “[The people] came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid.”

I doubt anyone invited him home for dinner.

***

When the wonders, the mercy, the power of God are nearly palpable, when lives are changed for the better, when someone rises from a death bed or walks sober from rehab into the morning sun, there will be those who can only see what they were, not what they are, not what is possible.

It’s understandable when those whose lives have been ruined by the healed person--it’s understandable they may not now or maybe ever be able to trust them again. But our trust, our gratitude, properly belong to God, not the person, the one who failed, who may fail again. The way I see it, their healing is a sign of God’s love, a measure of grace, an offer of hope. Maybe a do-over. Who among us has never needed one of those?

Mtr Mary