The Saints as Wounded Healers

Illustration by John August Swanson

For the past several years I have read about the lives of many saints in Give Us This Day and have come to realize that most of them are “wounded healers,” to use Henri Nouwen’s phrase. Many of the saints faced discrimination because of their social class or their race; often their spiritual gifts were doubted or discounted; some died early of physical ailments or martyrdom. How is it that the physical and emotional suffering they experienced aided them in their often heroic service of others? Consider this perspective offered by Rachel Naomi Remen:

“Wounding and healing are not opposites. They’re part of the same thing. It is our wounds that enable us to be compassionate with the wounds of others. It is our limitations that make us kind to the limitations of other people....  I think I have served people perfectly with parts of myself I used to be ashamed of.”

Being wounded in one way or another is an inescapable part of being human. In reading about the lives of the saints, we see that they had to deal with illness, grief, unfulfilled dreams, and family and workplace demands just as we do. What is distinctive about the saints is that they learned to refrain from making their wounds a source of bitterness or self-preoccupation and instead used them to foster healing through compassion and humility. They were able to do this by drawing upon Christ’s strength and sustenance. They give us hope that we can do the same, and so we honor the saints — those throughout history and in our own lives —and attempt to imitate them.