There are many of us who have wounds from the past that continue to affect us in the present. Sometimes the Lord, in his desire to come close to us, touches those wounds—those parts of our lives that are particularly painful and are still affecting us. These wounds, if not treated, can fester, become infected, and cause deep, long-term problems in our soul—in our ability to love and receive love, to trust others, to enter into deep friendships, to build a strong marriage, to build a strong family life, and most of all, to live our relationship with God. And we can have received these spiritual wounds for many different reasons. 

In John’s Gospel Jesus says: “But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.” What is Jesus speaking about? He is speaking about his death on the cross. And what is the purpose of Jesus going to the cross? To heal us. Jesus wants to fill our wounds with his love. There in the valley of darkness, Christ’s light can still shine, and you can be healed, your suffering can be redeemed, and God can bring some good even out of the evil you experienced.

I share all of this with you because we are about to embark on the most sacred time of the year. Next  week begins Holy Week. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday. This season of the year we are invited on a special journey with Christ. And perhaps part of that journey is to travel with the Lord on a path towards healing some of those wounds (from the past) that are still affecting us. A healing of our brokenness.

So if you start to notice that you’re a little more sensitive than others in certain areas, that you have certain insecurities, anxieties, unhealthy emotional responses, a need to impress, a fear of conflict, a desire to control every detail, a desire to be esteemed by people on screens who don’t really know you, an over-achiever side that’s compensating for a lack of unconditional love in your life—this may be God making you aware of something that is broken in you, putting his finger on something that he wants to heal.

And the question is will we allow the Lord to heal us? Or will we continue to allow these things to weigh us down—to burden us? Maybe Jesus is asking us to change our perspective, to change our attitude about what it is that is troubling us. In our faith formation sessions this Lent we have heard from one of my favorite spiritual thinkers, Father Jacques Philippe. He writes: “We are not always masters of the unfolding of our lives, but we can always be masters of the meaning we give them. Our freedom can transform any event in our lives into an expression of love, abandonment, trust, hope, and offering. The most important and most fruitful acts of our freedom are not those by which we transform the outside world as those by which we change our inner attitude in light of the faith that God can bring good out of everything with out exception.”

Remember what Saint Paul says: “In everything God works for good with those who love him.” The key word is everything. Saint Paul doesn’t try to clarify and say “in some cases”. God works for good with those who love him.

So, as we begin this most sacred time of the year, say a prayer that you will be able, with Jesus’ grace, to name our wounds, and entrust them to the Father. To be able to do this connects to why Jesus when to the cross. “But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.”