Rescued: Finding Hope in Healing and Baptism

For the past ten months I have been struggling with outbreaks of hives. Some days are worse than others when hives cover a good part of my body and some days I have been completely free of them. But then they return. I have seen multiple doctors and have been on a variety of medications. I have changed my diet, got rid of my old pillows and replaced them with new, and tried a variety of other things. Some days I think I have found the cause or a cure, but then they return. I realize the changes I made were just a coincidence and not really a cure. 

For a while, one doctor was convinced it was an allergy. I changed my diet and felt fantastic. I told staff members and friends I didn’t realize how bad I was feeling, until I felt good again. That lasted a week, the hives returned, and the tests came back negative for that particular allergy. More recently the doctors are suspecting that the hives are related to an autoimmune issue. Some days, along with the hives, I have horrible fatigue and often I have struggled to focus on the work I need to do. All in all, I just haven’t been myself for the past ten months. 

Recently the doctor changed my medication. For the past week the hives for the most part have been gone, and I have been feeling really good. I have the energy to go for a bike ride or a run. I am able to focus on the parish work I need to do. Time will tell whether it is the medication or just a cycle. Either way I am feeling “rescued” as I write this. It is like having the life I had before I started dealing with the hives. 

It just happens that “rescued” is the theme for this third week in our series on baptism. To review, the first week we talked about baptism in relation to being “created.” In baptism we are given a new life that allows us to live for what we were created for: to love God and to love our neighbor. God created us as the “hallmark” of all He had made. He created us specifically to be in a relationship with Him and others. As we heard last week, sin enters into our lives as we become captured by evil and Satan. But the good news is we can be rescued because of our baptism. We can return to the innocence of our baptism.

At baptism we are moved and given a fresh start from original sin. Saint Paul often speaks of this as our adoption. The power of sin is real and changes our lives – not in a good way. We often feel sick when we allow sin to conquer us. We may try a variety of things to rid ourselves of sin. Notice how popular self-help books have become in recent years? They may help, but usually not for very long. What often happens is one sin leads to other sins. It is the only direction sin can lead, it will never lead to goodness. Much like one symptom of a disease leads to other, more serious symptoms. And one day we look at ourselves and notice we are not ourselves – as we were intended and created – anymore. 

But the good news is we don’t have to stay this way. Some illnesses can be healed. Unfortunately, we are all aware that some cannot. But we can always be healed of our sin. We can always be rescued; we don’t have to stay captured. We can go back to how we once were. And the incredible thing about it is that we probably won’t realize how captured we were, until we are rescued. We don’t realize the effect sin is having on us until we reach out to Jesus, are forgiven, and once again are free to experience the lives we were created for. The life we experienced following our baptism. 

I pray the hives may disappear as quickly as they one day came. If not, I know the doctors are there to try the next thing that will hopefully help. Even more, Jesus by his death and resurrection is here to rescue us from our sin. It is what he has and will do for us. For as our Gospel reading concludes this Sunday, “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.”

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