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Camillus House News

Advent 2009: HEALING

December 16, 2009

Dr. Paul R. Ahr

From the point of view of a Christian spirituality, it is important to stress that every human being is called upon to be a healer. Although there are many professions asking for special long and arduous training, we can never leave the task of healing to the specialist. In fact, the specialists can only retain their humanity in their work when they see their professions as a form of service which they carry out, not instead of, but as a part of, the whole people of God. We are all healers who can reach out to offer health, and we all are patients in constant need of help. – Henri Nouwen

There is a display case in the lobby of Camillus’ Greer Building in downtown Miami. Here you can see replicas of Camillus Health Concern’s Healing Heart Award, a statue of Jesus raising up a crippled man, and bearing His question to the blind man outside Jericho (Mark 10:51): “What do you want Me to do for you?” The originals of these statues were separately presented to two persons, an attorney and a nurse. Each of them individually demonstrated Christ’s willingness to serve persons who are hurt and homeless, and both of them together exemplify Nouwen’s challenge to all persons, health care professionals and lay persons alike, to carry out our vocations as healers.

Our clinical staff and volunteers – the physicians, dentists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, counselors and other health care providers - deal directly with the medical and psychological problems of the persons who are hurt and homeless and seek our clinical skills. Their vocations as healers are easy to understand. But what of the others; how are they to be considered “healers?” “The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love,” Hubert Humphrey once told us. Those of us who are not clinicians heal through compassionate availability. For Nouwen,

Healing is the humble but also very demanding task of creating and offering a friendly empty space where strangers can reflect on their pain and suffering without fear, and find the confidence that makes them look for new ways right in the center of their confusion.

According to the Buddha: “Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compass-sion.” The power of compassionate companionship comes from heeding the greatest commandment, to love one another. This is why Nouwen sees what we call compassionate companionship as the most important relationship in the life of another who is hurt or suffering:

When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

“Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care,” the Shelter Nurse routinely reminds me. Our Camillus guests and clients are constantly surrounded by and supported by non-clinical staff and volunteers who are caring compassionate companions, as well as by clinicians who have mastered both the sciences of healing and the art of caring.

Rejoice in the knowledge that we are all called to be healers!