In Sickness And In Health
The Bride is sick right now; she's aching, she's ill, and longing for restoration. The good news is, The Ultimate Healer is her Husband, and she will be restored unto glory.
In marriage vows, two people proclaim to love each other in sickness and in health. Earthly marriage is a reflection of the spiritual marriage between the soul and God. Have you ever pondered upon the fact that God loves you "in sickness and in health?" Better yet, He is the one to restore you from sickness to health.
We are "sick" with sin, and deeply wounded. If we aren’t sick with our own sin, we are sick with the sin done unto us by others. God loves us in our brokenness; but He see’s us as whole people, made in His image and likeness. When one spouse is sick, the other does not want them to be stuck in their sickness but to be freed from it. The spouse still loves the other amid their sickness but longs for them to be free from that which makes them ill. This is how Christ loves us. He loves us in our sickness, in the midst of our wounds; but He longs for us to be free from that which defiles us, and to bring us into wholeness, into communion, into Heaven.
The Creation of Adam
Christ loves His Bride, The Church, in sickness and in health. He loves her and wishes for her to be restored to the glory of His perfect vision for her. The Bride is sick right now; she's aching, she’s ill, and longing for restoration. The good news is, The Ultimate Healer is her Husband, and she will be restored unto glory.
The faithful make up The Bride of Christ, The Catholic Church. When one member of the Church is sick, the rest of The Church gets sick as well. "And so there is no division in the body, but all its different parts have the same concern for one another. If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it; if one part is praised, all the other parts share its happiness.” - 1 Corinthians 12:25-26
The Bride of Christ
Just as sickness spreads from one member of the body to the other, wholeness and healing spread from one member to the other. In the early church, the apostles went around healing people and delivering them from their illnesses. The apostle's closeness with Christ, allowed them to minister to others, thus making people well. Each of us, as members of The Body of Christ, of The Bride, must obtain union, and closeness with Christ, so we can bring Christ to others. It's like a chain reaction.
How we are called to bring Christ to others, depends upon the charisms and gifts that God has given us. In order to let these gifts come to full fruition, we must allow Christ to heal us, so we can thus bring about the healing Christ offers to others.
“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit that gives them. There are different ways of serving, but the same Lord is served. There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to all for their particular service. The Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all. The Spirit gives one person a message full of wisdom, while to another person He gives the power to heal. The Spirit gives one person the power to work miracles, to another; the gift of speaking God’s message; and yet to another, the ability to tell the difference between gifts that come from the Spirit and those that do not. To one person He gives the ability to speak in strange tongues, and to another He gives the ability to explain what is said. But it is one and the same Spirit who does all this; as He wishes, He gives a different gift to each person.” - 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
Ask Christ to heal the parts of you that are "sick" with sin, and wounds, so you can obtain wholeness, and thus help others achieve this wholeness as well.
Please see my article Spiritual Health - The Divine Nourishment to learn about maintaining spiritual wellness.
What gifts has the Spirit given you? We all are given different gifts that we are called to exercise. Sometimes we are just too sick and wounded to be able to see them clearly. Know that God loves you in your brokenness, but desires to restore you unto glory. In sickness and in health God loves you, but He loves you too much to let you dwell in anything less than who He created you to be. We have to uphold one another and unify The Bride of Christ under the healing banner of Her Husband, so that she may become resplendent with glory, and reflect Her Bridegroom to the whole world.
Serviam.
March 2nd is the Feast Day of Saint Angela of The Cross.
"The nothing keeps silent, the nothing does not want to be, the nothing suffers all…. The nothing does not impose itself, the nothing does not command with authority, and finally, the nothing in the creature is practical humility". - Saint Angela of The Cross