Community Toolkit

On-going healing
through pastoral care

By Oreste Pesare

When His visible presence was taken from them, Jesus did not leave his disciples orphans. He promised to remain with them until the end of time; He sent them His spirit. As a result communion with Jesus has become, in a way, more intense: ‘By communicating His spirit, Christ mystically constitutes as His body those brothers of His who are called together from every nation'" (CCC 788).

"It is in the Church that Christ fulfils and reveals His own mystery as the purpose of God's plan: ‘to unite all things in Him'" (CCC 772).

We know very well how the Lord our God entrusted to His Body, the Church, the Christian Community, the task of embodying His love in the midst of the world, to remould mankind fully in His image and likeness, profoundly healed of the consequences of original sin, and from the snares of the ancient serpent: to live eternally blessed, with Him in His Father's kingdom.

So, the Christian Community is the body to which God has delegated the salvation of mankind. It is in Christ "like a sacrament" - "the instrument for the salvation of all", "the universal sacrament of salvation", through which Christ "reveals and at the same time fulfils the mystery of God's love for humanity" (CCC 775-776).

In this plan of salvation, the gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit fall abundantly on all the faithful through baptism and confirmation rediscovered and revitalised powerfully through a new outpouring, or baptism, in the Holy Spirit. These have a very special part to play. Indeed, they "whether extraordinary, or simple and humble", are "graces of the Holy Spirit which, directly or indirectly benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building up, for the good of men and to the needs of the world" (CCC 799).

It is a great delight to remember briefly these wonderful teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The love of God is present even in the world today, embodied in the brothers and sisters saved by Jesus and filled with His Spirit. They are ready to serve using the charisms they have received.

Freedom and maturity

So, it is in the heart of the Christian Community that Jesus continues to work; to save and heal mankind. The pastoral care that every Christian Community must develop in its midst has this as its aim: to make people feel that they are no longer alone; that their past can not harm them with its memories and traumas. But first of all a Christian Community has to take care that men and women learn to make free and mature choices in the Holy Spirit.

This important learning can be obtained through physical and psychological healings experienced in answer to prayers, significantly in the Charismatic Community, as well as in others. It also comes from the fraternal love and care, especially that of spiritual directors, with whom we quietly " carry each other's burdens " (Gal 6:2).

These very important pastoral workers (many of them lay people) accompany their brothers and sisters on their spiritual journeys and teach them to look to Jesus; to receive direction from Him on how to deal with life's situations and choices, through prayer, prophesy and through seeking advice. With Jesus as guide, our brothers and sisters have no need of anyone else to tell them what they ought and ought not to do. As they mature they rely on and trust God's will. This kind of experience, a new life in the Holy Spirit, is the strongest healing that anyone can have.

Steps toward the freedom

What then are the steps that spiritual directors are called on to show and indicate to those who want to walk towards freedom in the Spirit? We can single out three fundamental areas:

- prayer and the sacraments;

- sacred scripture;

- life in the community.

Prayer and the Sacraments

" If the Son of Man sets you free, you will indeed be free " (Jn 8:36). It is Jesus who heals and frees. It is to Him we should go. It is from Him that we receive life every day of our existence. Personal prayer, and in particular prayers of praise - intimate dialogues with God - bring us in confidence to the faith and hope which banish the shadows of fear and solitude. The sacraments, the real presence of Jesus, change our hearts and our being. They bring Jesus to live truly within us; to reign over our lives.

Sacred Scripture

Unfortunately today, there are many teachers who market false doctrines which have, as it were, roamed away from the truth and which do not bring us life. Rightly, the apostle Paul warns us to " make sure that no-one captivates you with the empty lure of a ‘philosophy' of the kind that human beings hand on, based on the principles of this world and not on Christ " (Col. 2:8). Only in the scriptures is the wisdom which is not of this world, capable of transforming the darkness and suffering of mankind into joy, peace and freedom in the Holy Spirit. Daily meditation on the scriptures lights up the path of all those who follow Jesus.

Life in the Community

The Acts of the Apostles tell us that " All who shared the faith owned everything in common " (Ac 2:44). Daily life in the Christian Community is a school of freedom and healing. It is the place where, though it seems like the world, we learn to forgive, to love and to tolerate those towards whom we feel an instinctive antipathy . It is the place where we can test out freedom from egoism and also learn from the example of others that " give, and there will be gifts for you " (Lk 6:38) is His law. The world teaches us that to be free and happy we should take what we want, even violently, at any cost. Jesus teaches us that the road to true freedom and inner healing is that of giving. Give your time, your blessings and your service to those in need. The life of the Community brings people to " live not anymore for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised to life " (2 Cor 5:15).

Doing this, pastoral care and guidance in a community of Jesus' disciples will show everyone the path of life. Only through this perspective can we understand and taste " How good, how delightful it is, to live as brothers together! " (Ps 133:1)

TAKEN FROM ICCRS