Whom shall I send? Here I am, send me!” (Is. 6:8)
Among the many books written by Henri Nouwen (1932-1996), one stands out as an enduring little classic, The Wounded Healer.
For those who knew him, this book is especially powerful because, without expressly intending to, it describes so well the man himself.
It was because of his own wounds that he was able to touch the lives of so many people. “By his wounds we have been healed,” St Peter wrote of Jesus (1 Peter 2:24).
From Nouwen, again, from his book Out of Solitude: “When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand.
“The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares….
“By the honest recognition and confession of our human sameness we can participate in the care of God who came, not to the powerful but powerless, not to be different but the same, not to take our pain away but to share it.
“Through this participation we can open our hearts to each other and form a new community.”
In the first reading at today’s Mass, God’s call made Isaiah aware of his own weakness and unworthiness, exactly as Jesus’ call to Peter made Peter blurt out, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
If, as Christians, we do not carry the precious knowledge of our own weakness and sinfulness, then all our attempts to help another are nothing but an ego-trip:
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- by ‘helping’ you they are feeding on your strength and making you weak.
- by ‘loving’ you they are seeking ways to snare you and make you dependent on them.
- by ‘caring’ for you they are preening their own image.
“Go away from me, Lord, for I am sinful,” – that is how you can be of best use to me, replies my God.