�Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs �
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J.,
God�s Grandeur
The scriptural language is based on a common human experience of the similarity between the unconsciousness of being asleep and death when the dying person seems definitely loosing conscious and contact with the rest of the world. The irrational and sometimes frightening world of dreams became a reference to the realm of the death. Who is sleeping is without will and can not act freely or defend himself or herself. In contrast, waking up, being awake is the real life, the world of consciousness, rational thinking and greater freedom.
I want to call the spiritual healing awakening. As the awakening person becomes free of dreams and not-knowing of the reality so the healing brings a new vision of the world, a new consciousness of self, new feelings and emotions. An awake person is aware of other people and enters in communion with them, he or she has goals and strives for meaning in life. Sickness means less or degrading life, healing means more and growing life in us. Awakening is a new day�s promise, full of hope of new life, it is a little bit of resurrection every day. In similar manner, each healing is a growing of life, a prelude of resurrection.
Awakening can happen as a cathartic experience, which happens only a few times and means a significant healing, great change in the individual�s life. Then we experience also a process of many little awakenings, a continuous growing of consciousness, awareness of self as time goes on. This happens when after a period looking back, we se that things are not the same as before, maybe some problems we had before have disappeared, we find ourselves more mature, self-confident, etc. The growing consciousness is also part of the normal development of the personality. For example, in the psychology of Jung the development of the human person is the individuation process, which means a growing consciousness of self, or knowing oneself more and more completely. This individuation lasts all the life and by this process �a person becomes a psychological �in-dividual�, that is, a separate, indivisible unity or �whole�� (C. G. Jung, Collected Works, Princeton University Press Vol. 9i, p.275). In the light of this insight, a person who remains oblivious of himself or herself and of the surrounding world can not be healthy, whole psychologically. Healing means a recover of the lost wholeness through a synthesis of the psyche, which requires deepening awareness, awakening. The idea of the importance of the growing awareness is not new at all. Already the ancient Greeks have formulated the principle �Know yourself� (gnoti seauton) as the source of wisdom. Interestingly this sentence was the inscription over the entrance to the sanctuary of Delphoi, which people frequented to receive healing and also divination, prediction of one�s future. As an example from the field of spiritualities, we can refer to St. Ignatius of Loyola. During the Spiritual Exercises the retreant is helped to arrive to an extending knowledge of oneself in order of being able to learn to discern and make decisions. The Ignatian spirituality requires also outside of the Exercises continuous discernment and a lifestyle based on conscious decisions. This is also an example of spirituality, which clearly fosters the psychological wholeness. Through the process of discernment a growing awareness, a continuous awakening occurs.
If we understand the importance of awareness in life we will desire to learn how to wake up and remain awake. This learning process can last the whole life and in itself is exciting and attracting, as we are discovering ourselves, our world and God in always-new perspectives. We will see new landscapes, enter depths and highs, and life will turn into a sacred history, an adventure of salvation. Meanwhile we know more and more profoundly we will become a friend for ourselves and for everything that exist. Life will challenge us and sometimes we will pass through sufferings, hard and special times, but we will understand that everything is part of our unique life, everything is precious part of our history that only us can live and live in that manner, nobody else. So even the strange and painful events get meaning and we grow in humanity, love and wisdom as we try to answer on life�s questioning to us in the different situations. Each day is a new beginning, which surely will bring challenges and new things, there is no time when we can not hope any more. God�s promise through the prophet remains valid for all times, we can hear it as said to us: �Behold, I am doing a new thing; now springs it forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert� (Is 43, 18-19). Now, today is the time to catch that new thing that is will never again return, today is the day to discover a new part of our way through life.