Final Project
Passage for Analysis: Week 2
Healing is something which we all — at one time or another — long for. We know all too well how it
feels to be sick. When we are ill, when we suffer physically, mentally or spiritually, we become more
aware of the fragility of being human. We know more intimately our powerlessness and limitations.
And illness of any sort can make us glimpse death.
And when we are unwell, we want to feel better. We want the cancer to go away. We want the heart to
recover. We want to be able to walk without pain. We want to wake one morning without the shadow of
depression hovering over us. We want the same for those we love.
In other words, we long for a cure.
And wanting to be cured is right and good and a natural longing. But to be cured is not the same as to
be healed. To be cured is to be free from disease. A cure can come without healing. A person can be
freed from their illness but not freed from the anger, the confusion, the grief it has caused. They may be
physically well but a shade of the person they once were, of the person they could be.
But to be healed is something different, something more. And never is this more evident than at the
bedside of someone who is dying. To be healed is to be restored to wholeness. To be healed is to be
redeemed. To be healed is for memories to be forgiven, the past put to rest, the whole person, body and
soul to be reconciled to God.
Today’s gospel is itself a story of healing. Of cure as well, yes. But the cure is secondary, symbolic.
Jesus sees a blind man (a man, interestingly enough, who does not even ask to be healed) and he gives
him sight.
In doing so, he rubs clay on the man’s eyes; another way of translating it is that Jesus “anointed” his
eyes. St Ambrose, one of the 4th century Church Fathers, links this act with the act of creation. He
writes: “He who restored the man to health by anointing his eyes with clay is the very one who
fashioned the first man out of clay.” The God who first fashioned human beings out of clay, breathed
holy breath into them, blessed them and declared them good is known in the healing act.
There is a strong baptismal theme in this story as well. The man is anointed, cleansed and then is able
to see clearly the light of Christ (though, as is the case with us too, his understanding of what has
happened grows slowly).
What God wants for us isn’t just survival, coping, getting by. What God wants for us isn’t a life half-
lived in the shadow of death. What God wants for us is life, full and rich and abundant, life shining
through with the light of Christ’s love. In God’s own longing for us, we find our hope. We find our
healing.
Analysis
A. Identify the compounders (those underlined above):
Word
Compounding Class
Example:
something
indefinite
which
Relative pronoun
we
Personal pronoun
all
indefinite
at
preposition
one
indefinite
or
Coordinating conjunction
another
indefinite
how
Interrogative adverbs
when
Subordinating conjunction
of
preposition
the
Article
us
Personal pronoun
without
preposition
same
Indefinite
those
Demonstrative pronoun
and
Coordinating conjunction
a
Article
as
expletive
can
Modal auxiliary verb
has
Primary auxiliary verb
but
Coordinating conjunction
could
Modal auxiliary verb
who
Relative pronoun
them
Personal pronoun
B. Identify the sentence patterns of the following sentences (derived from the passage):
We become more aware of the fragility of being human.
Np1 Vlink Aj
We know more intimately our powerlessness and limitations.
Np1 Vtr Np2
We want to wake one morning without the shadow of depression hovering over us.
Np1 Vtr Np2
A cure can come without healing.
Np1 Vintr
They may be physically well.
NP1 Vbe Aj
Today’s gospel is itself a story of healing.
NP1 Vbe NP1
Jesus gives a blind man sight.
NP1 Vtr NP2 NP3
St Ambrose links this act with the act of creation.
NP1 Vtr NP2 (Passive Voice)
The man is anointed. (treat “anointed” as a verb, not an adjective)
NP1 Vbe
