5th Sunday - Year B - Jesus Heals Today

 

In the Gospel today, Jesus healed the mother-in-law of Peter, and He cured many sick of their various diseases. The Gospel tells us the whole town came to the door of Peter’s home.

Jesus today heals the sick and many times we are unaware of it, but there are times He heals in a miraculous manner.

Most of us are familiar with the story of Chase Kear, a 17-year boy from Colwich who had a pole-vaulting accident resulting in severe damage to his skull. Doctors said there was no way he would ever be normal again and they thought he would soon die. But through the prayers of many people asking Fr. Emil Kapaun for his intercession, Chase Kear had what many believe to be a miraculous recovery. The Vatican is investigating the alleged miracle.

On Jan. 19, 2015 there were reports that three 14-year-old boys who fell through the ice, at Missouri's Lake Sainte Louise. One of the boys, John Smith, was underwater for 15 minutes when rescuers found him.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported he was taken to a hospital with no pulse, and his friends who fell through the ice were treated for hypothermia. They performed CPR on John for 27 minutes.

Dr. Kent Sutterer said, "He was dead for 45 minutes," and that there was a "very poor chance of survival." But when the doctor called John's mom into the room, he said, "she started praying loudly.” His mother, Joyce Smith said, "I don't remember what all I said. But I remember saying, 'Holy God, please send your Holy Spirit to save my son.' ... All of a sudden I heard them saying, 'We got a pulse, we got a pulse.”

Today, John's brain function is normal, and he's at home walking and talking like any other teenager. Due to this alleged miracle, a movie, “Breakthrough” came out about the true story.

The next story just happened today. While I am certain it will never be declared a miracle. I believe the Lord did something. Today, is the feast of St. Blaise, while hearing confessions, I had the hiccups. And just after someone left the confessional, I prayed, “O Jesus, please help me. Take away these hiccups.” Immediately, the hiccups stopped. While some may say, that was coincidence. I don’t believe so. While I never prayed asking St. Blaise, the patron of throat disorders, for his intercession to stop the hiccups, he may still have interceded for me, asking Jesus to stop the hiccups.

What most of you don’t know, is that I was having migraines 2 or 3 times a week. The migraines were caused by arthritis in my neck due to past injuries. If I would take the medicine, as soon as the headache would start, they would prevent the migraine. But despite that, I still had migraines 2 or 3 times week and many times it was associated with weather change. When my arthritis would flare up, I would get a migraine.

A friend from Wichita asked me to come to a prayer service called “Encounter Ministries”. He suggested the group of 4 pray over me asking Jesus to heal the migraines. My response, was “A priest should accept His sufferings with love and offer them for the people of his parish. If Jesus wants to heal me, that is fine. But if He chooses to not heal me, that is fine too.” After they prayed over me, I have had only one migraine since October, whereas before, I had 2 or 3 migraines a week. I believe Jesus healed me.

As I mentioned before, last year, I had 5 surgeries and 9 procedures. I was getting a bit worn out with all those doctor appointments and all those surgeries and procedures. Sitting in all those waiting rooms. I saw it as an opportunity to pray for others who I would meet at the hospital and doctor offices.

While it took some time, for my thick head to understand, I now finally realized, Jesus used the doctors, the anesthesiologists, the nurse practitioners, the nurses, x-ray staff, etc… to heal me. Today, Jesus uses ordinary medicine, surgeries, etc.. to heal too.

What we all need to remember is, St. James, Chapter 1:17, “all that is good, all that is perfect, is given us from above; it comes down from the Father of all light; with him there is no such thing as alteration, no shadow caused by change.”

My friends, every good gift, every good thing, comes from God. And therefore, God is the one who heals in hospitals and surgery centers. He is the one who can heal anytime, or anyway He wants. We need to open our eyes to see all that He is constantly doing for us.

Sometimes, God doesn’t heal us because He knows it is best for our soul to accept the sufferings we have and see them as opportunities to grow in love for others. Suffering purifies our own soul and when we unite our sufferings to the sufferings of Jesus on the Cross, He can use our sufferings to give others the grace of conversion, the grace to turn back to Jesus, and to discontinue going down the wrong path of life.

I have also seen Jesus work apparent miracles through the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. We come in contact with Jesus through all the sacraments. Many misunderstand it. Anointing of the Sick is to be given when there is a potential danger of death. Potential, does not mean the person is in fact in danger of death, but that it’s possible. For example if a person is going to undergo anesthesia, he or she should be anointed. The sacrament can also be given to the elderly or to anyone whose health has declined, even the seriously mentally ill can be anointed.

The problem is some think we shouldn’t be anointed until near death. But this is not true, we should not wait for near death. Because if we aren’t careful, the person will die before they get anointed. If a person is conscious, and if in mortal sin, they are to go to confession before anointing, otherwise they won’t receive graces from the sacrament.

Last week, I anointed our 7^th grade PSR teacher during class, because she was going to have knee surgery, so the children of her class could see how a priest gives the sacrament of anointing of the sick. I explained the three purposes of anointing of the sick.

First anointing forgives sin, even mortal sin, when the person is unconscious or unable to go to confession. This comes from the book of James who said, “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” James 5:14–15.

Second, anointing of the sick gives us grace to endure our sufferings or the sufferings to come if we are going to have surgery or chemo-therapy or for some reason when we know we are going to suffer physically soon. We need those special sacramental graces to prevent us from losing hope and it helps us to turn to Jesus in our need. This is why we should also not wait to anoint someone. Because they need those graces to persevere through their suffering.

The third purpose is that Jesus can use the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick to physically heal. As a hospital chaplain for 5 years, I anointed thousands of people.

Not very often, but there were times when it seemed Jesus worked what appeared to be-- a miracle. One such person was a woman, whose boyfriend said, she was brain-dead. The doctors suggested they pull the plug. I visited her in intensive care and anointed her. The next day she came out of her coma, and within 3 days, she walked out of the hospital. Is brain-dead, not really death? Or did Jesus work a miracle, despite brain death?

A sixteen-year-old girl at Council Grove, Kansas kept fainting during PE and during sports activities. One day, she fainted and hit her head. They took her to the hospital and the doctors discovered she had a heart problem. On their way to Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City, they stopped by St. Rose of Lima church in Council Grove and I anointed her.

When she arrived at Children’s Mercy, they ran all sorts of tests and said there was nothing wrong with her. They said there was no way the tests results sent from Council Grove could have been the same patient. They accused the Council Grove doctors of sending wrong tests. But, the Council Grove doctors were adamant and said they are absolutely certain they sent the right tests. So what happened? After she left the hospital in Council Grove, and before she arrived at Children’s Mercy, she was anointed, and we believe Jesus healed her. The girl never had another fainting incident again.

It is wonderful that Jesus heals the physical bodies of people, just like He healed Peter’s mother-in-law and the blind man and the lepers, and the paralyzed man. And He physically healed people through our prayers or through a group of people who pray, or through the Sacrament of the Sick, or though the intercession of saints and Jesus heals through ordinary means such as medicines, machines, and doctors.

All this is wonderful and a great witness to His power and love for each person. Yet, it is better for us that Jesus heals our souls by forgiving our sins and heal our souls through Holy communion. All those who Jesus healed and all the people who Jesus physically heals today eventually die. Our body will someday die, but our soul will live forever.

Our soul is infinitely more important than the body. It is more important that we help our soul to live a life of grace. At the end of the world, our soul and our body will be reunited at the resurrection of the dead. All of us will have an incorrupt body and will never die again.

Today, let us turn to Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life, may we come to Him often in the sacraments to receive His healing touch and His love. And may, Mary, Help of the Sick, pray for the sick and dying, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.