Saint Benedict Episcopal Church

An Opportunity to Bless 

 

Every Sunday at the worship services, we offer prayer for healing during the Communion time. You may have wondered what this is about and what happens during this time.

There are many stories in the Bible of miracles and healing, from the healing of Moses sister, Miriam in the Book of Numbers (Num 12:12-13), to the many reports of  Jesus’ miracles and healings and on into the Acts of the Apostles when, it is reported, the  Apostles carried the healing power of God.

Many books have been written about the process and mystery of healing and we can’t even begin to scratch the surface in this short article. There are some thoughts I would like to share with you, as a beginning. If you are interested, we might go further into the subject. It is, however, a mystery and our human minds just can’t fully comprehend the workings of God. We can discuss it and perhaps begin to have some common understandings of what we believe. I will share with you my approach to healing prayer and what I believe.

The first is the most important and it has three parts:

First: We are made in the image of God. The Divine DNA rests within each one of us. God’s perfect will for us is health and   wholeness. “Be whole”, Jesus tells us, “as My father in Heaven is whole.” Wholeness indicates unity within oneself, agreement between body, mind and spirit. Dis-agreement can lead to dis-ease.

Second: All of creation, including our bodies, was redeemed by the action of Jesus. We are reconciled to God. Being reconciled with God means that all of us, all of creation, can be brought into accord with God’s Holy Will for us. Again, Jesus tells us that we are children of Light, children of The Father. Now, we are flawed human beings and we constantly fall out of step with God through our sins, intentional and not intentional (known and unknown). Illness however is absolutely NOT a punishment for a sin! We need to seek constant reconciliation through worship, especially Eucharist, to bring ourselves back into step with God’s will for us. I believe, though, that our basic human nature strives toward unity with God. “It is very good” God said when he looked at all of creation. Sin is real and we must never discount it, but I believe that our true self yearns toward God. Sin blinds us to our real self. Our Christian belief acknowledges that our  physical life is just an entry to a larger and eternal reality.

Third: God knows our every need, even before we do. We do not need to outline the problem for God nor do we need to direct Him how to “fix” it. God truly has our best interests at heart, too. You may remember that I mentioned Moses’ sister Miriam at the beginning of this article. Her illness, leprosy, made her unclean and separated her from the community. I love Moses’ prayer for her healing. He doesn’t go on at lengths about why God should heal her, he doesn’t even tell God what the problem is. Moses simply says, “Lord, heal her.” God responds (how God responds is another story!) and Miriam is restored to the community. My version of the Scripture doesn’t say whether the leprosy itself was cured. That’s a point to remember.

The second part that I want to share today is this:

When we pray, something always, ALWAYS, happens. God always is with us when we go to God in prayer. Healing comes in many forms. We don’t always see or experience physical healing. It may be spiritual healing, relational healing, emotional healing. Healing may be a process that we experience over time and with constancy of prayer, like the woman who constantly demanded a favorable verdict from the Judge. Something happens to us when we pray. That “something” always leads to our good, in whatever form that may take.

Remember: it is a mystery. And here is another very important part: God’s response is not based on our perceived worth! It is NOT a matter of “If you’re good enough…” or “If you believe enough…” God is ALWAYS present when we pray and God’s love for each of us is more enormous that we can ever imagine! God does not leave us alone to struggle with illness or problems. Healing prayer often gives me the strength to continue to march on, to continue to feel my own portion of the “Divine DNA” and rest on that, without physical healing. Sometimes physical healings do occur. For me, there are more significant results to prayer for healing: a sense of God’s abiding Presence and renewed hope, strength and faith for the future, with or without physical healing.

We human beings can be and are often agents for God’s healing love. In healing prayer, we seek to do and be that for each other.

Next time maybe we can consider why it is helpful to have healing prayer within the context of the Eucharist. For more information contact Deacon Zula.