Afflictions of the Heart
One of my favorite stories of all time is the story of Les Misérables. Some of you may have read the book, seen the Broadway play or the movie that came out two and half years ago.
But the story is based off of the famous book by Victor Hugo, and in the book what we find there is a very powerful spiritual story that is… surprisingly Catholic.
As some of you know, the story revolves around the character, Jean Valjean, who is in prison for, what one would say, is a petty crime that could have been dismissed: he stole a loaf of bread to feed his starving child. But because of this, he was sent to prison and locked away for 19 years where he endures harsh labor and suffering.
When he gets out after 19 years, he is extremely bitter and full of hate for all individuals and institutions. And on top of that after prison, he is continually discriminated against because he is a convicted criminal.
Well the story goes on that a bishop of the church takes him in and he gives him food and a place to sleep. But in his resentment, Jean Valjean steals the silverware from the bishop and runs away at night.
Pretty quickly he is caught by some officers, but when he is brought to the bishop, the bishop doesn’t condemn him back to prison, but instead says, “no, no those were gifts” and not only that, “there is more that I want to give you!”and gives him a pair of silver candlesticks. Jean Valjean is shocked to the core.
I love this scene because what we find here is a powerful and pivotal moment in Jean Valjean’s life. It’s the moment that maybe for the first time Jean Valjean was touched by God’s grace. This grace washed over him and melted away all his hate and bitterness and left him changed forever. As the story goes on, we see that Jean Valjean also becomes grace for others throughout the story. All because of an encounter with God’s grace and mercy. This scene, in many ways, is at very the center of the Christian spiritual life.
I tell you all of this because, today, I want to make a connection between… 1) the story of Jean Valjean, 2) the afflicted woman in our Gospel story today, and then lastly 3) our own Christian experience.
In each of these stories, we find lots of suffering. Jean Valjean is wounded by the way others have treated him unjustly, and suffers for 19 years in prison. In the Gospel, the woman afflicted with hemorrhages, also suffers greatly for 12 years from a wound that would not heal. And both search desperately to fill this void, this wound unsuccessfully.
Jean Valjean in his bitterness and hate, decides to take it into this own hand and take from the bishop what he feels he rightfully deserves for his suffering. The afflicted woman in the Gospel as well seeks out a cures. The Gospel says, “she had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had.” Both persons tried to fill, to cure this wound but ultimately failed.
How often is this our own experience? In our suffering, in our pain we desperately reach out for so many things to try to fill the wound. We try so many ways to numb the pain. We search and tell ourselves, “If only…”
“If only I could have this car”… I would be fulfilled
“If only I could had a spouse”
“If only I could have kids of my own”
“If only I was free to do what I want”
“If only I wasn’t born this way”
“If only I was financially stable”
“If only… (fill in the blank)”
But the problem, my brothers and sisters, is that none of those things that we think will make us happy can truly fulfill us. Like the afflicted woman, none of the suggestions from supposed doctors was able to cure the wound. None of the suggestions that the world offers us can cure the wound of our hearts. Andif we continue to follow their advice we may very well find ourselves in the same situation as the woman: completely spent and not helped at all but finding that the wound only grows worse.
Why is this? Because ultimately, it is only God who can fulfill this great desire, this great longing, this woundedness of our souls. This is how God made us. This is how he designed and created us. As the first reading today tells us, we are formed in the image of God’s nature, in the image and likeness of God, of a God of infinite love. We were made from Love, by Love and for Love.
And St. Augustine famously put it: O God, you have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.
So often, as the famous 80’s song puts it, we’re “looking for Love in all the wrong places”. God wants to give us so much more than what we think we need! He wants to give us his very self, his infinite love!
Both Jean Valjean and the afflicted woman grasped at what they thought could cure them. But utlimately God wanted to give them more.
The afflicted woman had suffered for twelve long years. And because of her bleeding, she was probably unable to have children, she was also considered unclean and so no man would even touch her. Thus she not only lived in physical suffering but also intense shame. It was probably because of this shame that she did not approach Jesus directly but came up from behind and to just touch his garment. In her faith, she believed that Jesus, the divine physician, can heal her of her physical wounds. But what she did not know was that he wanted to give her more.
Now what’s interesting is this… Jesus knew who touched him. He knew that this woman had been cured. And he could have left her like that, cured of her physical ailments. But like the good bishop, he wanted to give her more. He wanted to cure her of her shame, of her fear. Thus he called her out and spoke to her as a person with love. Not only was she cured of her physical woundedness but also her emotional wounds. And not only that… Jesus then goes on and says “Daughter, your faith has saved you.” She was then forgiven from her sins and made spiritually new.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, each one of us is like this woman, is like Jean Valjean. Every single person here has a deep wound that only God can cure. And so often our wound, our sin causes us to live in shame. Each person here grasps and has desires for things that are not good for us, that will not fulfill us. Thus all of us are sinners.
There is no such thing as “a Church where there aren’t any broken people“, without any wounded persons. There is no THEM who are unhealthy and US who are healthy. There is only US wounded sinners. Every single person here is a wounded person. And the Church is a “field hospital” for us.
It is here, that we find our redemption, our happiness, our fulfillment, our cure of this wound; a cure which can only come from God. It is here in the confessionals that we have the opportunity to encounter the touch of God, where we receive the medicine for our wounds. It is here at the altar, that God graciously gives us his very life, his body and blood as nourishment to truly satisfy the soul. And if only we have the faith to approach him, and allow God’s simple touch in our hearts, we can be completely cured of the wound that so many others things have failed to cure. And not only that… God will give us more, so much more.
If we allow him, God will make us first and foremost His sons and daughters. He will lift us out of darkness, sin and shame and makes us sons and daughters of love.
