DAILY REFLECTION FOR LENT: THURSDAY MARCH 20TH: In “Stretch Out Your Hand” question #2 is, “Can you prove it? Can you ever say for sure that it was prayer or supernatural intervention that effected a specific healing?” This could easily be restated in terms of God’s existence. Can you prove it? Can you ever say for sure that was God that was behind a specific … well, just about anything? Norberg and Webber write, “Let us be clear that in talking about spiritual healing we are not dealing with the realm of empirical proof. By hard scientific standards, much of the evidence for healings would be considered anecdotal (but what anecdotes!). Yet we affirm the importance of those areas of life that are not subject to proof, areas where the human element is paramount. This includes most of what makes us human, our values, personal relations, and religious experience. Although we imply no devaluing of science and technology, it seems that a strictly scientific mindset can shut one off from positive experiences of healing prayer. What we suggest to those who are inclined towards skepticism is that they conduct an experiment. Experiment with laying their skepticism aside for a while (imagine putting it on a shelf where it can be retrieved later) so that another way of experiencing reality, another way of knowing, may be allowed to come to the fore. Of course, one need not accept every miraculous claim that comes along; but just imagine the difference between responding, ‘How can people believe such things?’ and asking, ‘Do I sense the love and power of God at work in this situation?’ (pp. 31-32)” Read globally, does this perhaps suggest that a hermeneutic of suspicion has its place in the scientific realm, but can actually be a damper when one is dealing with a more complete view of experience? One can say that it leaves no room for trust. “Ah”, but someone might respond, “I can trust what I can verify in a laboratory”. That this is limiting, and indeed counterproductive, is shown easily enough in the one place trust matters most … relationships.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 20:37:46 +0000
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