Spiritual Homeopathy by Celia Hastings
November 3, 2016
“Through your wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5 The Inclusive Bible
As the Thanksgiving and Christmas season approaches, some may find it difficult to celebrate. Those with recent or impending or unhealed losses may not look forward to the season. Wherever one may be on the journey of faith, “spiritual homeopathy” has something to offer.
What is spiritual homeopathy? It is based on the principle that “like cures like” and “wounds heal wounds” — the underlying wisdom of support groups. A Biblical story which illustrates this principle takes place on the ancient shepherding people’s journey through the desert. When they grew impatient and complained bitterly to Moses, God sent venomous snakes to bite the people. Many died. When the people confessed their sin, God told Moses to put a bronze snake on a pole. Those who were bitten and focused on the bronze snake did not die; they looked and lived.
Many years later Jesus said of his mission, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so the Chosen One must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes on the Chosen One might have eternal life.” Jesus’ disciple Peter wrote, “By Christ’s wounds you are healed.” In “The Angel that Troubled the Waters,” Thornton Wilder wrote: “Without your wound where would your power be? ... In love’s service only the wounded can serve.”
As the Thanksgiving and Christmas season approaches, spiritual homeopathy offers healing to all – because the Babe in the Manger is also the Wounded Healer.
The Rev. Celia M. Hastings has a master’s degree in religious education from Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Mich. She is author of “The Wisdom Series” and “The Undertaker’s Wife.”
Posts
