THE FELLOWSHIP OF WOUNDED HEALERS | KAIROS GLOBAL | JUNE 2022

Author: Dr Edward Edezhath

There are times when you go for a class with a plan, but there everything takes an unexpected turn. This happened to me again recently. 

It was a seminar for youth. For the warm-up session leading to the topic of discussion, I asked the group to discuss the most important challenge that contemporary youth face. A lively discussion followed. Finally, Teresa, a teenager, spoke up. ‘The greatest struggle most of us face is that almost no one understands the struggle that we go through. Even when we are so sad and lonely, not even our parents notice it. Everyone is too busy. Even when they see us upset and sad, they are so hesitant to connect with us.’ Her friend sitting close by eagerly nodded and added, ‘If only we had some concerned people and also places where we will be listened to, understood and accepted.’

I wanted to tell them, what you are asking for is a regular, lively Jesus Youth fellowship. Fortunately, Jake shared his experience. ‘I moved to this city after my high school and was invited to the Jesus Youth group here. Imagine the host of challenges and frustrations a person like me goes through, in a new place with an unfamiliar lifestyle and culture. But there was this group I could come back to, week after week. There were also some generous families and friends to whom I could pour out my heart to almost every day. I not only received help to solve all my inner struggles, but also learned to walk in my faith. If I did not have this JY group, I do not know where I would have been.’

Activity focus can be so hurting

There was an interesting background to this discussion. When I met the parish priest of the place that morning, he complained about the lack of cooperation from the young people there. Youth were not taking any interest in the variety of programmes that were being organised. He had tried several activities, but eventually they all fell through. 

Listening to Teresa and her friend speak about the insensitivity and lack of concern that they encounter at home and elsewhere, I thought of how people who need each other journey on parallel lines. The priest was convinced that the many activities organised in the parish were best for the youth. But the youth look for persons and places to unload their burdens and sort out their confusions, for which the parish programmes are so irrelevant. 

I am glad that Pope Francis understands it well. He says, ‘I see the Church as a field hospital after battle. ... You have to heal wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds... And you have to start from the ground up

.’

Wounded Healers

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung coined this term. He said ‘wounded healers’ are often intuitive and insightful. They often have an inspiring story of healing and will be compassionate. They in turn will be very helpful for those who need healing and companionship.  

• They have experienced pain and suffering, probably undergoing healing themselves and so they easily connect with persons in pain and suffering.

• Wounded healers are good listeners, understanding, accepting and creative.

• From their own experiences they come to view each suffering as an opportunity.

Quite interestingly, anyone with a touch of the Holy Spirit can be a good healer. Some training or orientation for listening and supporting the lonely can be helpful for this mission, but not essential. 

We should not forget that Jesus is the ‘wounded healer’ par excellence. He was wounded for our sake and now he comes to heal us. So, we in turn call upon the Crucified One to be present and active when we approach one another to give and receive healing.

We need field hospitals and war-front doctors

Soumya, one of the organisers of the above-mentioned youth seminar told me, ‘Almost every family and every young person goes through tough problems. There is no dearth of inputs telling them what to do. But what every person needs is the healing presence of good friends, to listen, support and encourage.’ She continued, there are needy people everywhere, but so very few available to help. As a good JY missionary, she spent a lot of time with troubled youth and families. She also found that regular meetings in small groups go a long way in helping people sort out their problems. 

We encounter a similar scene in the Gospels, And when he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers to his harvest’ (Matthew 9:36, 37).

Deeply wounded by realities that continue to hurt, most people build walls around them. Some people even find and hold on to spirituality and prayer styles that will help them block relationships. As Pope Francis explains it well. ‘The Christian ideal will always be a summons to overcome suspicion, habitual mistrust, fear of losing our privacy, all the defensive attitudes which today’s world imposes on us. Many try to escape from others and take refuge in the comfort of their privacy or in a small circle of close friends, renouncing the realism of the social aspect of the Gospel. For just as some people want a purely spiritual Christ, without flesh and without the cross, they also want their interpersonal relationships provided by sophisticated equipment, by screens and systems which can be turned on and off on command.’ (Evn Gau, 88)

There is a need to introduce people to healing relationships and communities and to help them understand that Christianity is all about fraternity and love. ‘The Gospel tells us constantly to run the risk of a face-to-face encounter with others, with their physical presence which challenges us, with their pain and their pleas, with their joy which infects us in our close and continuous interaction.’ This surely is what we intend to do in a lively Jesus Youth small group or friendly gathering. The Pope continues, ‘True faith in the incarnate Son of God is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the community, from service, from reconciliation with others. The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to the revolution of tenderness.’ (EG, 88)

One important reality of today is that there is too much information on almost everything, including prayer and faith. But in the face of life’s hurdles and confusions most people find themselves abandoned and there is almost no one to go in search of them. The call of a Jesus Youth is to be a ‘war-front doctor’ in search of the wounded and lost. And the ministry of healing is at its best in a regular healing community which can become a field hospital of contemporary society.