The Dangerous Loss
There are two kinds of travelers to the Holy Land, and especially Jerusalem: tourists and pilgrims. A tourist moves from the center of his existence, his home, to the periphery; he is on vacation. A pilgrim moves from the periphery, to the center of his world, his home. It has been noted in the Jerusalem medical world that there is a tendency to breakdown among pilgrims. One doctor has treated hundreds in the last ten years. Most of them had previous problems, but many not. Overwhelmed by profound spiritual experience, they come suddenly to fancy themselves Jesus, Mary, the Messiah, one of the prophets. The treatment is not difficult, is effective. Usually it is all over in a week and becomes total and final when they leave. Then they return to normal and wonder whatever happened to them.
People in the Israel tourist trade are familiar with all this, called popularly the "Jerusalem Syndrome", and know the tell-tale signs: the first is to fall behind your tour group. Then irritation with them all. Then comes preaching. And finally going around wrapped in a bed sheet. Members of the Israeli Army, should they find a European or American wandering in white looking for locusts and honey, simply take him to the psychiatric hospital in northwest Jerusalem. The head doctor there says it is not true psychosis, but a religious casualty: people get too close to fire and catch on fire themselves.
One comment suggests that likely candidates for the syndrome are Catholics and the Orthodox who love ritual, rite, ceremony, liturgy. Not so. Ninety-five percent of the cases are Protestant.
Says the doctor: For Protestants, the religious hierarchy has been broken. They have direct access to God and that enables one to have a strong personal experience. But the loss of ritual, the loss of the sacramental tradition, is dangerous under stress conditions. Ritual is a psychic machinery by which the believer can get close to God, to the Fire, without getting burnt.
Ruth Barnhouse, psychiatrist and Episcopal priest, agrees: The Protestant stands alone before God. This is the strength and the weakness of Protestantism. Obviously it is an advantage to stand face to face with God. But you can see that it can have serious psychological consequences.
We can rejoice in the healthiness of our Faith. In today's Gospel, Christ speaks of the forgiveness of sins and He passes the power to the Apostles that they forgive in his Name.
The entire ritual of going to confession, telling your sins, receiving absolution from God, from Christ, by way of the priest is good for us in so many ways. Not only are our sins forgiven, Christ's grace restored or increased, love of God once again made a quality of our life but all is done in a human, humane way.
God forgives our sins the moment we repent of them, but there is healing for us in hearing it.
One can worship God in the woods, on the mountains, in the privacy of one's room but it is so healthy also to do so with others: to kneel, to pray, to sing, to receive peace and give it, to hear the Word, to eat the Bread of Life, to drink the Cup of Salvation. All very human and humane.
Our life in the Church, our response to it is so sound, so healthy, but we're used to it and we may forget that, or not realize it. And the fruit of it is not some bizarre experience, but a deep peace, a sense of meaning, and in the midst of whatever comes, a kind of joy that is deeper than mere feeling, mere mood. We are grateful to God.
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