Wounds That Don't Heal

The Rev. Martin L. Smith, a well-known spiritual writer and Episcopal at St. Columba’s, D.C. wrote a reflection for Episcopal Cafe that says in part:

Wouldn’t “Wounds that don’t heal” be an accurate title for an Easter sermon? I’m not alone in finding this single detail found in the stories of Jesus’ Easter appearances—that the Risen Christ has open wounds—to be the key that convinces me that the resurrection did occur. A made-up story would have had the wounds healed and an imaginary Christ as a figure of sheer glory. But no: the resurrection as it actually happened is God’s savage rebuke of all human tendency to cover up pain, all cosmetic smoothing over, all letting bygones be bygones, all conspiracies of silence, and phony cover-ups masquerading as reconciliation. “He showed them his hand and his side.”

Yet the resurrection of the wounded one is also the supreme gesture by God that bestows irrevocable permission for all time on those who have suffered to acknowledge their suffering as genuine, however others deny or minimize it. In the resurrection of the crucified, as the crucified, sufferers meet the Son of God as the one who keeps them company in the worst that can befall us. Through this meeting, we can find the redemption of what we endured, and delve into possibilities of grace in which buds of life and creativity can germinate just where injury and loss have done their worst.

The full text of his reflection makes a good connection to children of divorce and the theme above. That essay is online here: Wounds That Don't Heal

End of Life Care
My religion column for today's Tribune & Georgian, Belief and Practice at the End of Life started out as a reflection written for this space, and the final text is better for the comments of Debbie and others which I took into account when writing the finished article. Thanks for the assistance!

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor