The Work of Healing
This month we’re asking ourselves what it means that we, as Unitarian Universalists, are “a people of healing.” The verb “to heal” has an interesting etymology. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, “heal” comes from the Old English hælan which means, “cure; save; make whole, sound and well.” Hælan comes from the Proto-Germanic word hailjan, literally “to make whole.” (Hailjan is the source also of Old Saxon helian, Old Norse heila, Old Frisian hela, Dutch helen, German heilen, Gothic ga-hailjan, all of which mean “to heal, cure.”)
To heal, then, is to make whole. The word “holy” is also etymologically related. Healing. Wholeness. Holy.
There is a passage from the poet Adrienne Rich that is one of the most quoted readings in our hymnal. Wikipedia tells us that Rich was an American poet, essayist and radical feminist. She was called “one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century,” and is credited with bringing “the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse.” The passage is this:
“My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.”
“So much has been destroyed …” Whether we’re talking about the environment, our political discourse, the illusion/delusion of white supremacist culture as the inviolable norm in which and with which we live, or those pieces of our own lives that we feel or have felt we “cannot save,” there is no doubt that “so much has been destroyed.” And seeing that, our compassionate hearts cannot help but be moved.
Several years ago the UUA mounted a national advertising campaign with the slogan: Nurture Your Spirit; Help Heal the World. I’ve always liked that as a way of describing what we UUs are all about. At our best, we offer the bruised and broken of this world a place, a community, in which to nurture our spirits. (And, really, who among us has never been bruised or broken, at least at some time, to some extent?) Yet we don’t stop there. Again, at our best, our congregations do not have mirrors in our sanctuaries, indicating our desire to look only at ourselves. We have windows – and traditionally clear windows – so that we can look out at the world to see where, and how, we can “cast our lot” with those who work to “reconstitute the world.”
What does it mean to say that we Unitarian Universalists are “a people of healing?” It means that we see the need of healing in both our inner and outer worlds. It means that (at our best) we are as willing to accept healing as we are to offer it. It means that (at our best) our communities are, themselves, places of healing for the hurt and the marginalized.
Pax Tecum,