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| TOUCH THROUGH ME LORD AND MAKE ME AN INSTRUMENT OF HEALING |
We are called to be givers. We are called to minister to others by becoming instruments of healing rather than being on the receiving end always.
What was the original plan of God? In the Old Testament God the Father said in
Jeremiah 29:11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a
future with hope. In the New Testament the Son builds and affairs the plan in
John 10:10b I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. God wants us to be happy but we are not due
to various reasons. We must be in a
possession of a hearing, knowing, listening, and practicing faith.
There are 41 miracles
listed in the Bible the purpose of these miracles is to build our faith, to
encourage us to go the One who is our Deliverer, to Whom nothing is
impossible. Who as C.S. Lewis said can
write straight with our crooked lines.
Who can draw good from evil.
Jesus can always be
trusted to come to us as he did when he descended from the mountain after
praying. Matthew 9:36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them,
because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. We have
to cultivate the heart of Christ. We too
must be compassionate we must make time to listen to each other and make
ourselves available as Jesus did.
1st MIRACLE
JESUS HEALS A CENTURION’S SERVANT
Matthew 8:5-34
In Matthew 8:5 a remarkable statement made
by the Roman Centurion makes an impression on Jesus and draws his praise and
admiration. This pagan and foreigner has
an expectant faith which is not based on a feeling but in his belief in the
power of Jesus. Jesus is taken up by
this man’s faith, praises it, responds to it and rewards it saying, “What you
believe will happen.”
Although the Centurion was an important
official he was humble. He had
faith. He got it right when he came
before Jesus to plead for the healing of his servant.
Jesus the healer has said in Mark
16:18-20 that when He commissions his disciples
18they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink
any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick,
and they will recover.’ 19 So then
the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat
down at the right hand of God. 20And they went out and proclaimed
the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message
by the signs that accompanied it.
Jesus assures us that He will minister through us using us
as his instruments.
2ND MIRACLE
THE WOMAN
WITH THE ISSUE OF BLOOD
Matthew 9:20 identifies this woman as, “a woman,
which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years.” Mark 5:25 identifies
her as “a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years.” Luke 8:43
“a woman having an issue of blood twelve years” Luke goes on to tell us that
she had spent all her money on physicians and they could do nothing to heal
her.
This unnamed Jewish woman has been suffering for twelve years. Her illness has robbed her not only of her
health physically but we are told in the Gospel of St. Luke that she had
spent all she had on physicians and still remained sick. There were many
things working against her that day. Not
only was there such a large crowd that she had to literally push her way
through, her disease rendered her unclean.
According the law of Moses she had to be separated from her family
because she was unclean but anyone who came in contact with her too would
become ritually unclean. So had they
known of her condition they would have been extremely angry with her.
However far greater than her fear was her quiet desperation at her
condition. Jesus was her last hope. Her
faith in his power to heal her became the propelling and motivating factor to
somehow meet Jesus. Also worth noting is her humility. All she wanted was to
get close enough to him so she could touch him without drawing attention to
herself. She believed that all she
needed to do was to get close enough, touch him, even his garment would do and
she would be healed. Nobody need know
anything. She inched her way through the crowds who were pressing around Him on
every side, and the disciples who had formed a human shield around him and she
reached out a trembling hand and touched the edge of his garment. In an instant
she was healed. She knew it and so did
He. Jesus felt power go out of Him. Her
faith was rewarded. When we reach out in faith our touch too will have the
ability to draw the power of Christ into us.
However it is not enough to just accept our healing without any
acknowledgement and without testifying publicly to what God has done for
us. The woman was made to identify
herself, testify what the Lord had done for her and God praised her publicly,
attributed her healing to her faith and rewarded her with the gift of peace.
Our testimony glorifies God. Faith can
only be proved when it is tested.
3rd Miracle
JESUS HEALS A PARALYTIC
In this miracle compassion is the motivating
factor that compels the friends of the paralytic to bring him to Jesus. They believe in faith that Jesus can cure him so they carry him to the
house where Jesus is preaching. The
house is so heavily crowded they cannot get the man through so they climbed to
the roof, made a hole in it and let their friend down before Jesus. Once again Jesus rewards the faith of the
friends. This time however he first
forgives the sins of the paralytic. We must
remember that there is an order to the prayer for healing.
Psalm 32:3 - 5 have this to say,
3 While I kept
silence, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’,
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’,
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Confession results in healing this is why it is
also called a Sacrament of Healing. If
sin is present it blocks the power of healing.
What is spiritual must come before what is physical as we see in
2 Chronicles 7:14
14if my people
who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from
their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and
heal their land.
We who are praying for the healing of those we
love must do so humbly and patiently.
Waiting on the Lord who in his perfect time will grant all we desire in
accordance with his will.
James 5:14-1
14Are any among
you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over
them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15The prayer
of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who
has committed sins will be forgiven.
4th Miracle
The Canaanite Woman’s Faith
Matthew 15:21-28
Jesus is in the district of Tyre and Sidon when a
Canaanite woman, a foreigner from that region came to see him crying loudly,
‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’
Strangely Jesus does not answer her which is quite unlike him. He normally
is quick to respond to a cry for help. His disciples ask him to send her away
so he answered her saying, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel.’ But she was desperate. Jesus is the only one who can help her
and she was not proud. She came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help
me.’ Again he responded in a manner that was intended to put her off. He said,
‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ She did
not take offence rather she turned the tables neatly on him by saying, ‘Yes,
Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’
Jesus had a lesson to teach us and that is why he led the woman to make a
confession of her faith in him and as always Jesus never disappoints those who
come to him in faith. He answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let
it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.
Jesus says to the woman that the bread belongs to
the children. We call God Father and so we have a right to the bread that
God gives. It is our right to expect healing. We ought not panic,
or be perturbed and run helter-skelter here and there looking for healing
conventions. The woman had great faith and so her daughter was healed in
an instant. She was confident that He would do for her as she
asked.
Our trust in Jesus is a gift given to us by him as
John 14:12 assures us, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me
will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than
these, because I am going to the Father.”
5th Miracle
The Paralytic at the Pool of Bethzatha
John 5:5-9
In this miracle we see a man we has been ill for thirty
eight years. Did he honestly want to be
healed or did he prefer being an invalid?
No demands would be made of him and he could beg for a living.
Illness can be of different types – body, mind or
spirit. We can have emotional wounds
that make us sick. Fear, anger, guilt,
disappointments, anguish, anxiety etc.
All these could cause deep emotional, physical or psychological
illness. Some people use their illness
as a crutch they prefer to be an object of pity to others.
In this miracle the man is just lying there and Jesus
approaches him. But Jesus is the perfect
gentleman and so will not impose Himself.
He seeks, he knocks and he asks. What
is our response. God will never
overlook, override or overcome our desire.
We have to desire healing, wholeness and well being. Once we have faced the situation we are
called to act as verse 8 tells us. Jesus
commands him to, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ Faith, hope desire and enthusiasm were all
dead in this paralytic to Jesus takes the initiative and approaches him. God longs for us to be healthy in every area
of our being. He comes in search of
us. He meets us where we are and he invites
us to desire healing so we can become all that he intends us to be.
Jeremiah
30:17 assures us
17 For I will restore health to
you,
and your wounds I will heal,
and your wounds I will heal,
says
the Lord,
because they have called you an outcast:
‘It is Zion; no one cares for her!’
because they have called you an outcast:
‘It is Zion; no one cares for her!’
Ezekiel 36:26 says
26A new heart I will give
you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body
the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
EUCHARISTIC HEALING
We pray the prayer of the Centurion at every celebration
of the Holy Mass,
“Lord I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof,
say but the word and my soul shall be healed.”
The Holy Mass has the power to heal us. “
Are we prepared to do the simple things with faith and believe. We must be transformed at every Eucharist. Each time we celebrate the sacred mysteries we ought to grow more in the image and likeness of Jesus.
We cannot only observe the exterior form of worship
without believing, entering, receiving and acknowledging its power to transform
us from within. As 2 Timothy 3:5 reminds us we ought not to be guilty of, 5holding
to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!
At every Eucharistic Celebration that we attend we ought
to come before the Lord believing that his word has the power to do what the
Psalmist says it is able to in
Psalm 107:20
20 he sent out his word
and healed them,
and delivered them from destruction.
and delivered them from destruction.
Surrender is another important element that is required of
us. We must be prepared to come to Jesus
with the attitude of complete surrender believing that he not only can heal but
that he desires to heal.
And once we are healed we must not forget to render thanks
as Mark 11:24 reminds us:
24So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,
believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
