We each have our own unique baggage to carry; we each have our own reasons for not putting it down, or throwing it out. But we all have the same overwhelming need: a healing encounter with the Risen Christ.
We know Jesus died in atonement for our sins, but the word "atonement" has a special distinctive meaning: at-one-ment. Jesus' complete sacrificial love for us is designed to bring us into oneness: oneness within our divided selves, oneness with others, oneness with God. Jesus - God - is Love, and the greatest work of love is unity. Jesus prayed for us all to be one with each other and to be one - whole - inside: "Holy Father, keep them in your Name, that they may be one just as we are." (John 17:11).
We know about Jesus, but do we really know Him, as an intimate Friend? Because this perfectly loving and understanding Friend of ours always goes out to meet with and talk one-on-one with and heal people who have the same baggage and weaknesses that we have. Can we stand in front of Him now, with open hearts, and ask Him to gaze into our wounded, hurting hearts' depths to ease our pain?
Maybe we're afraid to step forward. But Jesus sees from afar that we are hurting and in need of Him, and gazes at us with love, just as He saw Nathaniel standing far off, under a fig tree before Nathaniel even got the courage to meet Him. Jesus is always ready to meet with us as soon as we are.
Jesus sees our blindness, those times when we haven't been honest with ourselves about a situation, or we've willfully turned away from the truth. All we have to do is admit our blindness and ask for healing, and He sends His Holy Spirit of Wisdom to enlighten our hearts. He sees our lameness, our fear to step forward out of our comfortable lives to make amends, to do His work, and He bends over the pallet where we lie paralyzed and He tells us to stand up and walk, filled with His Holy Spirit of Courage .
Jesus knows how deaf we are: deaf to those who try to make us understand, deaf to the friends and relatives who may ask for help in subtle ways, deaf to the hurts of people who are different from us. All we have to do is admit it, and He touches our ears with warm hands and gives us the Holy Spirit of Understanding.
He knows that we fear to believe in Him and He is always willing to enter the room of our hearts when we are alone at night to visit with us and strengthen our faith, as He met with Nicodemus at night and blessed him.
Perhaps we suffer with emotional or mental illness, and it feels as if we keep falling down, consumed by an inner fire, or as if we're possessed by demons, like Mary of Magdala. We can fall down in our hearts before Him and ask for His Gift of Healing Strength and Endurance to keep going to the Doctor and trying new meds and new dosages. To keep going to the counselor, being honest.
Are we still ashamed of our past sins? Jesus eats with sinners and is not ashamed to be seen with sinners. He loves us! He wants nothing more than to see us confess our sins and then drop the baggage and burden of our guilt, because once we've admitted our sin, He forgives and forgets. If Jesus forgets our sins, we should forget them too! If we approach the Sacrament of Holy Communion, to receive Him, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, Real Presence of the healing Jesus, - we should always murmur "Oh Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but only say the Word, and my soul shall be healed."
If memories besiege us, we can ask Jesus to walk through those memories with us, and to show us how He stood beside us every step of the way, guiding us, guarding us, protecting us from stumbling into a darkness so great that we couldn't escape it.
Reach out for Jesus' Hand. Speak out to His Heart of Mercy. Receive His Healing Touch and His Holy Spirit of Courage, Faith, Hope, Love, Wisdom, Healing Strength and Endurance, Understanding, and the Forgiveness of your sins. His Healing Touch brings you inner wholeness/Oneness and Oneness with others and our God. And when your encounter with the healing, Risen Lord is over, receive His blessing: "Go in peace, for your Faith has saved you."