No Cure for Being Human - October 15
Today’s Readings: Psalm 42; 1 Samuel 3:1-18; Mark 1:35-39 (Feast of Teresa of Avila)
Today’s Reflection
As the deer longs for the water-brooks, so longs my soul for you, O God. My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God; when shall I come to appear before the presence of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while all day long they say to me, ‘Where now is your God?’ I pour out my soul when I think on these things—Psalm 42: 1-4a
Yesterday I was excited to receive a package at the office. When I opened the box, I found my long-awaited copy of Kate Bowler’s new book, No Cure for Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear). Over lunch yesterday, I sat outside in the Memorial Garden Courtyard to relish in reading the first chapter of her book, which my Tuesday evening book group will discuss together next month. No doubt many of you reading this will know that I have quoted from Bowler’s earlier memoir, Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved) in a sermon or two—and maybe in a Daily Reflection or two as well.
Why am I so drawn to Kate Bowler’s books and podcasts? I love that Kate Bowler gets that life is not perfect and neither are we. She has been a cancer patient for the past five years, ever since she was diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer at age 35, with a 1-year-old son and husband at home. She faced the daunting prospect, at that time, of being given a 14 percent likelihood of surviving for at best two more years. Five years later, Kate is still with us, helping all of us through her writing and podcast to continue to reflect along with her about the fact that bad things keep happening to good people. And, related to that, she guides us in reflecting on how we can hold onto our faith and hope in the light of all sorts of deep suffering and inconsolable grief for which there is just no good reason.
I also resonate with her perspective because, like me, Kate Bowler is an academic and a person of faith. In the decade leading up to her cancer diagnosis, Bowler had been developing her research agenda as a historian of Christian history, publishing scholarly books on the history and influence of the prosperity gospel movement. Simply put, the prosperity gospel is a particular understanding of Christianity that holds that if you have enough faith, you and those you love will only experience abundant lives filled with only good things. A ‘health and wealth’ gospel, if you will. She studied churches, preachers, and church-goers who stake their livelihoods and lives on this belief—and she thought she was critiquing them from a safe, scholarly distance.
She studied them, in large part, because she perceived these beliefs to be so different than her own. But what Bowler discovered, when faced with her own cancer diagnosis and the very real implications for herself and her family, was that maybe she had somehow believed that no suffering or sorrow would ever come to touch her. As Bowler shares so poignantly in both of her memoirs, her ongoing experience with cancer has deepened her sense of who God is, who she is, and clarified who and what are most important in her life.
Today, October 15, is the Feast Day of Teresa of Avila. At age 20, Teresa joined a religious order, taking orders as a Carmelite nun in Spain in 1535. Like Kate Bowler, Teresa’s life and faith were deeply shaped by her personal experience of suffering. Not long after becoming a Carmelite, Teresa became seriously ill, was in a coma, and paralyzed for three years. During that period, Teresa became deeply devoted to the life of prayer—and she found that later, when her health improved and she regained her mobility, that she became for a time less devoted to prayer. But as she continued to grow in her faith, she re-embraced the life of prayer and went on to write deeply spiritual books based on her mystical experience of God—a relationship with God forever changed by her personal experience of serious illness and suffering as well as the loss of her mother at age 15.
Her mystical writings, devotion to prayer, and work to reform her monastic order resulted in Teresa of Avila not only being canonized as a saint just 40 years after her death in October 1582, but also to her being one of the first women to be honored as a Doctor of the Church (along with Catherine of Siena)—though they were not recognized as such until centuries later, in 1970. Teresa is specifically recognized as the Doctor of Prayer, and she is the patron saint of the sick, especially those who suffer from headaches and migraines, as well as those who are ridiculed for their faith.
As we give thanks today for the strong faith of both Teresa of Avila and Kate Bowler, may we reflect this day on how our own faith has been and continues to be shaped by our experiences of illness, suffering, and grief. With the psalmist, may we “pour out our souls when we think on these things,” being honest with God and ourselves about when “my soul is heavy within me.” I pray that we will be mutually encouraged by one another’s faith, in God and in one another, even when “tears have been my food day and night” (Psalm 42).
Becky+
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” –Teresa of Avila
Collect for the Feast Day of Teresa of Avila
O God, by your Holy Spirit you moved Teresa of Avila to manifest to your Church the way of perfection: Grant us, we pray, to be nourished by her teaching, and enkindle within us a keen and unquenchable longing for true holiness; through Jesus Christ, the joy of loving hearts, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Questions for Self-Reflection
How have you found that your own faith and sense of God has changed when you are going through times of significant illness, deep suffering, or inconsolable grief?
As you have found yourself beginning to emerge from such challenging times, have you experienced changes in your understanding of God and self as you have begun to move forward?
Daily Challenge
Consider joining our November book discussions on Bowler’s No Cure for Being Human. You can learn more about Bowler’s books and podcast on her website. You find the Zoom link in the e-news or by emailing becky@ssechurch.org
This book talk by Yale scholar Carlos Eire seeks to answer this question about Teresa’s autobiography: “How did a manuscript once kept under lock and key by the Spanish Inquisition become one of the most inspiring religious books of all time?”