THE CHURCH, MENTAL ILLNESS, AND US

Jesus came to love and to heal those who are sick. And that should be the Church’s role.

Teaching about mental illness is good, but it does nothing to remove stigma or discrimination. It does the opposite. It only serves to point out how our disabilities make us different from others.

Jesus did not come to give lessons about blindness or leprosy or what made people that way.  Neither should teachings about mental health be the focus of the Church. Secular mental health organizations already do a good job of that, but only the Church can feed us spiritually.

Only the Church can help us as we search for the love of God. Only the Church can heal in the way Jesus healed—by drawing us to himself.

Teachings about mental health issues do not point us to what Jesus would have us see—how we are real people in the way others are real people. They don’t remind us of Christ’s teachings that we should be as brothers and sisters, equal members of the same family.

The Church is called to follow Jesus, to teach how each of us has worth and how we need compassion and love.

It’s through the Church that we find what we most need—people who love God and who can share his love with us.

marja