Contemplation on healing conflict

A conflict about healing in the texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary today is point of entry to explore connections between our Spiritual traditions and our struggle to bring healing to the separation between people.

Fig 1 David and the desert

David Challenges Goliath in the passage from the First Book of Samuel. In the Gospel from Mark, Jesus is in conflict with his adversaries over the question of sabbath-day observance and healing a man with a withered hand. Diane Jorgensen shares her reliance on the voice of God as strength in the face of rigid and polarized thinking. Don Schwager quotes John Chrysostom, 547-407 A.D. on how the Pharisees betrayed their wickedness not only by their hostility to Christ, but also by their doing so with such contentiousness that they treated with disdain his mercies to others. Dr. S. Lewis Johnson cites examples of the Sabbath as a very precious thing. In Ordinary Time, January 17th, is the Memorial of St. Anthony, abbot who lived in solitude for about twenty years. Ibn Kathir tells of Dawud (David) in a story of Prophet Dawud/David. It has parallels with the desert experience of St Anthony. Friar Jude Winkler notes David realizes God will protect him. God chooses the weak to perform His will. Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments on those who do not yet know that the only way to talk about transcendent things is through metaphor! He notes that early stage religious people are invariably literalists, and not yet poets and mystics. There is no other way to speak of the ineffable. The action of David and St Anthony are examples of commitment to surrender to God. In attempting to describe the ineffable, Richard Rohr and Abraham Heschel are aware of the need for mysticism and Divine Inspiration to realize the hope in “I have a Dream”.