Healing 5

Dear All,

This week and next we are working with the healing of the man by the pool in Bethesda: John 5:1-9.

Behind and above the events depicted in the story, we sense the issue of whether the man can let himself be addressed by the Word.

If at the time of Christ the Word appeared to speak through a particular human form, now the speaking significance of the world is universally available.  It is up to us to speak by, and allow ourselves to be addressed by, the Word. 

In Harlem, people sometimes say, "Word," as a simple affirmation of a truth.  A: No way they'll pick up the garbage above 125th St this week.  B: Word.

It is a locution that comes from the Gospel churches, where the congregation might reply to a fine moment of preaching with the affirmation, "Word!"

Even if these are tiny fragments, the totality of the Word now speaks through this one or that one, through a human or a cloud or a glint from a piece of gravel.  Or with no physical carrier at all.

In our meditations, we begin with the question Jesus asks the guy, "Wilt thou be made whole?"

It is a rude question, and the guy doesn't initially feel its significance.  He's being invited into a different order of will, a lighter one: the will to be addressed, which cannot be powered through.

So the challenge of this meditation: Will we be made whole?  Will we allow the totality of what can be to address us immediately? 

all blessings to all,

Michael