Lamenting to heal - June 26
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; PM Psalm 119:121-144
Num. 16:36-50; Rom. 4:13-25; Matt. 20:1-16
While in one of my favorite museums last week, I sought out the sculptures by Auguste Rodin. My sisters and daughter were looking at another display and so I was alone, beholding the majesty of these works. The Burghers of Calais caught my attention. The expressions on the faces of the bronze men in chains spoke of hardship and sadness. As I looked around, other sculptures nearby had expressions of struggle and strife. I felt myself slipping into that space to feel the heaviness of life, acknowledging that amid the beauty of God’s creation, we humans feel sadness and desperation. In silence I lingered for a few minutes, tears on my cheeks as I pondered questions of life’s pain upon humanity across time…until my daughter called for me to join her in looking at more art. I returned, ready to participate in the joy and wonder of her first experience at The Met.
When I read yesterday’s daily email from the Center for Action and Contemplation entitled “Lament is Healing”, I was immediately reminded of the experience at The Met – facing the sadness of life to be more deeply connected to full and fulfilling living. The writer Barbara Holmes imagines an exchange between educator Mary McLeod Bethune and Martin Luther King Jr. on the healing power of tears. Bethune imparts this wisdom: “Lament is needed as a ritual of cleansing and preparation for what is yet to come. It is a step in the process of liberation…”
Dr. King’s imagined response includes this observation: “This generation is inundated with twenty-four-hour news stations that bring the pain of the world into your living rooms. Yet, your lives in Western societies seem to go on unchanged. You are inundated with news of disaster and death, yet even in your compassion, you seem distanced and detached from the grit and horror going on in the world…We have forgotten the gift that lament can be…”
Bethune’s imagined response is this: “That is why my call to the next generation is to reclaim the possibility of real joy through the healing practice of lament.” She says that we must weep when there is sadness, so that we can release the angst and frustration held within us. Lament can be a tool we re-teach children...because the next step after allowing tears to stream down one’s cheek is comfort, in which people are connected more deeply as community. Healing is found through those tears.
The Psalmist who crafted Psalm 119 knew of that lament. We at Saint Stephen’s know of that lament. Speaking authentically to spaces of pain brings healing. And we, in turn, share our stories of healing to remind others what real life looks like…what real struggle in faith and loss and love can be.
So friends, be brave. Allow yourselves to venture into the space of lament. You are not alone in this quest to delve deeper into the ways God created you to live and know and be and love.
May you feel fulfillment in God’s faithfulness today,
Katherine+
Reflection and Challenge
Take a few minutes and read the reflection on lament as a means of healing. Then, journal about your reactions to the premise offered. What makes lament appear accessible or impossible? Listen for what is stirring in you as you ponder lamenting.