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Enlightenment Journal | Summer 2011

the hands, the touch, the voice of something greater, wiser, more knowledgeable 

than I am. 
Rev. O’Brian: Everyone wants the doctor who has that point of view—who sees 

us as whole and complete and calls forth the highest good and our own innate 

healing potential. 
Dr. Macchello: If we approach life as holy and whole, even death can bring 

people to completeness and healing. Curing is the “fix it” on the body and 

healing is moving with someone to a place of greater freedom, where they fall 

into an awareness of their true Self. Healing is what we are looking for. The body 

falls away, but if we can reinforce the awareness of the person’s wholeness as they 

move towards integration, the ego falls away. This is serving; this is healing. This 

is much different than curing or fixing. 
Rev. O’Brian: Definitely… that attitude is so supportive of the person in transi-

tion. What have you learned about the power and presence of divine grace that 

supports people in their time of grief and loss? 
Rev. Macartney: Healing comes from dealing with the body and the mind, but 

what sustains us is our spiritual self-care, our connection and communion with 

God. When people are in grief and able to rest in the knowledge of eternal life 

for their loved ones, they can find peace for themselves in the present moment. 

There is a way out of suffering. 
Dr. Macchello: It is illuminating to see what happens to people as they approach 

the end of their lives. They come to me suffering with what I call “psychological 

fussing” about the superficial things—fears about this sensation in their body, 

that sensation, obsessions. They are suffering and so attached to the body.  I can 

think of one patient in particular who came to me year after year with many of 

these types of complaints and worries. When I went to her bedside as she was 

dying, that suffering, that attachment, had fallen away. I was amazed. She was 

glowing in calm acceptance and when I asked her what was sustaining her at 

this time, she said, “Gratitude. I am surrounded and filled with love.”  She had 

gone beyond the personality, the ego that was constantly “fussing” and trying to 

control, and had slipped into a place of inner freedom that was beyond suffering 

even though she was dying.  That is very much what our spiritual practice is 

about.  It is a mirror of how we can live as spiritual beings and really zero in all 

the time on what is important, letting the false sense of identity and the fears and 

suffering that come from that, fall away.