Jesus stated with great clarity that sin is actually slavery; He came to give us freedom, the freedom of the sons and daughters of God. Saint Augustine, who was actually a slave to his sexual passions until he was 31, later on in The Confessions stated: “O Lord, you have made our hearts for thee; our heart is not at peace until it rests in thee.” Augustine stated himself that he could not conquer his sexual addiction right away; such was the case that he was known to have said: “Lord, give me chastity, but not yet.”
Addictions and slavery are many. In a real sense, we are all born with a void or hole, an empty vacuum in our souls. It must be filled! Either it will be filled with God Himself or a false god, an idol, a fake, a reflection but not the reality. Once again Saint Augustine taught: “The human heart is called to love. However, we must choose the object of our love and then love with all our heart.” If the object of our heart, which is actually a Person—Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—is not discovered, then there is a real danger! The danger is that we can easily fall in love with a false-god, and there are many, and we can be both addicted and enslaved.
What then are some of the idols, the false-gods that enslave us and lead to binding addictions? Actually, they come in many different shapes and sizes, but there indeed are many. The following is a concrete list of addictions: drinking (alcoholism), drug abuse, sexual addictions including that of pornography, the Casino and gambling, compulsive buying (“shop until you drop”), overuse of the cell-phone, overeating (gluttony), gossiping, video-games, vacationing and over-sleeping. All of these can become addictions and there are still many more.
BLINDNESS TO THE PROBLEM. One of the worst enemies to conquering any problem, false-idol, or deep-rooted addiction is the blindness, or better yet, the unwillingness to humbly admit that there exists this problem. There is a Spanish proverb that expresses this clearly: “No hay peor ciego que aquel que no quiere ver; no hay peor sordo que aquel que no quiere oir.” Translation: “No worse blind person than the one who does not want to see; no worse deaf person than the one who does not want to hear.”
Therefore, one of the first steps in overcoming any vice, sin, or addiction is to humbly admit that we have that problem. In other words, we cannot enter into denial, or rationalize, or let’s be blunt, we cannot lie to ourselves.
Once we can come to terms with the reality that we have a problem and that we cannot resolve it by our own meager efforts, then we have already entered onto the Highway of healing, happiness, wholeness and holiness!!!
As a result of Original Sin, all of humanity, with the exception of Jesus who is the Son of God and Mary who is the Immaculate Conception and the sinless one, are wounded. The wounds are deep in our minds, our emotions, our hearts, our souls, and even our bodies. We are all in a real sense a walking, gaping wound.
This is the dynamic! Jesus is THE WOUNDED HEALER. Either we will be wounded-wounders or we will be wounded-healers. How will this play out? Quite simply as such. If we live with our wounds and make no effort whatsoever to heal these gaping wounds, then the wounds will grow bigger and bigger. However, if we seek healing, then we indeed can be healed.
Our healing can come about only by approaching with great confidence Jesus, THE WOUNDED HEALER. He can definitely and efficaciously heal our wounds. Peruse and meditate upon the Gospels, most specifically on the encounters between Jesus and the many sick, infirm, suffering, dejected and rejected gaping-wounded of His time.
NEVER REJECTION: YES, HEALING! The interesting fact of the Life of Jesus is that He rejected nobody who came to Him with faith, humility, and confidence. Quite the contrary, Jesus the WOUNDED-HEALER, would heal, and almost always the healing would be both immediate and total, and without cost!
WHO WERE THESE? Many of those who had these gaping wounds were drawn to Jesus as if He was a Human Magnet, from all times and places. Just to mention a few: the paralytic carried by the four, the lepers, the blind, the deaf and the mute, the woman with the blood-flow, the man with the withered hand. All of these wounded persons were loved by Jesus and He healed them immediately, totally, and unreservedly. These were the wounded of the society who sought their healing from Jesus, the Divine Physician.
THE WOUNDED LAMB. The Prophet Isaiah made this prophecy of the Suffering Servant and his wounds—all pointing to Jesus who would become this wounded lamb. “He was like a lamb that was led to the slaughter-house. He opened not his mouth. He was wounded and bruised for our sake. And by His wounds we are healed.” (Is. 53: 5, 7)
Let us all humbly admit with the utmost sincerity that we are wounded, that we make up part of the enormous multitude of gaping-wounded persons of the world. However, the great news is that there is a Healer, there is a Doctor in the House, there is a Divine Physician and His Name is Jesus Christ.
If we can expose our gaping wounds to His own wounds, then He can heal us totally and efficaciously. Just as Jesus healed the paralytic, the ten lepers, the blind, the deaf, the mute, and even raised the dead, giving them new life, so He can heal us.
Therefore, let us take off the bandages; let us expose the wounds, the puss and infection, to Our Lord Jesus Christ. His Divine touch will never wound deeper, but rather it will heal securely. As a result of our encounter, our contact and touching of Jesus, we will become indeed WOUNDED-HEALERS in a wounded and broken world.
THE GOOD NEWS: FREEDOM OF THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD. The Great News is the following: we are no longer slaves bound to addictions. We no longer have to live in slavery and sin bound to addictions. Jesus, who is truly the Divine Physician, is indeed THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE! The Lord Jesus desires, more than we do ourselves, that He stretch out His hand and heal us; if only we will allow Him to touch us!
