For some time I have wanted to engage those meditating with the Prayer of the Lamb in exploring its intercessory aspect, to compare this spiritual practice with other ways people have prayed in intercession for others, and tie all this in with scripture and the process of faith realization. This last fall I started to offer a class on Intercession and Healing, but it turned out not to be the right time.
Now I’m back looking at this topic both as a class offering and for a very personal reason. On the last day of September I embarked on an unexpected and what has turned out to be a continuously unfolding adventure of sorts beginning with a routine mammogram. That scan led to a second mammogram that led to a needle biopsy that led to biopsy surgery. The breast cancer that was discovered was at a very early stage thankfully. And I am very grateful for the many blessings and advantages I enjoy – I have medical insurance, I have access to medical care, I can learn about what this is and all the ways in which it is treated, and I have a large network of friends and colleagues who are a tremendous resource of information, and emotional, practical and spiritual support. I am indeed blessed.
So while my personal time now and in the near future is taken up with a lot of attention given this condition, I feel even more strongly about the relevancy of meditation as intercession. With that comes questions concerning what we mean by healing, what the role of faith is in praying for others, what is faith, what is the source of faith, and what the connection is between healing and wholeness. These are questions that people of faith have been asking and exploring for centuries, and they are questions most all of us grapple with at one time or another during our lifetimes.
Usually attention goes first to medical intervention: symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, convalescence, recovery, prevention. The physical body deservedly and appropriately receives a great deal more attention than previously. But healing obviously involves more than the physical alone. The mind is so connected and integrated with the body that the process of healing is not a separate or isolated experience of the body alone. Whether illness or injury our emotions, memory, hopes and fears, desires and longings, frustrations and anxieties all respond to what is happening physically and also impact recovery and healing. And it is also well known that our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and life-style habits all have an influence positive or negative on the health of the body, indeed even to the point of contributing to the genesis of disease.
But it doesn’t stop there within the single individual. We also live in community and as a part of the environment. What contributes to well-being or to disease, pollution, environmental toxins and hazards goes far beyond the individual. There is a sense in which we can say that much of our various health problems are a result of simply being born into this environment and culture. This takes the issue of healing and wholeness to an inclusiveness that encompasses all that we know and can touch around us. Healing at this level then necessarily includes reconciliation and social healing, which is another way to say social justice – restoring wholeness for all members of the community.
When we pray the Prayer of the Lamb, Yeshua, Lamb of God, have mercy on us, offering it in the manner of meditation, we are accepting the inclusiveness of the scope of God’s mercy. This necessarily goes beyond my supposedly separate and individual self, my personal concerns and my own desires. If I receive mercy and healing, if in any way I come to greater wholeness as an integrated being, that integration is not solely within this skin. It is integration within the entire environment, in the whole field of life. It is no small matter. A single word can create life or destroy it. Our healing is not our own, and I will not come to full wholeness until we all are whole.
So meditation is a way of service that is inclusive and comprehensive more than it is individually focused. For those of us who meditate this then comes as a mandate of responsibility for participating through this faith practice in being healers for the world.
Keep meditating!
Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly
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