In my work as a priest over the
last fifteen years I have come across many people who have told me about
miracles of healing which they or someone close to them have experienced. A close friend of mine by the name of Sandra,
who is married with 6 children, saw one of her own children miraculously healed
at Lourdes a few years ago. Her son Joe,
who was about 7 at the time, was suffering with severe eczema all over his
body. It meant that his skin was raw and
bleeding a lot of the time. He had to be
covered in wet bandages from head to toe which took his mother an hour and
twenty minutes to put on each time. They
decided to bring him on pilgrimage to Lourdes to pray for him. While they were there he was brought to the ‘baths’
which is where many of the sick are brought in order to bathe in the healing
waters of Lourdes as Our Lady told St. Bernadette to do. After he had been to the baths he started to
say, ‘Mom, I’ve been healed!’ She paid
no attention to him as he was often playing up as little boys will do. But then he started to say it to others on
the bus and eventually he said, ‘Mom I’ve been healed. Why don’t you believe me?’ She started to get suspicious at this point
and said, ‘I do believe you.’ When they
went back to the hotel she took off the bandages and his eczema was almost
completely gone. That is just one of
many stories of healing that I have heard and I’m sure there are many of you
here who could tell me more.
Why is it that we don’t see more
miracles of healing? Jesus healed many
people during his time on earth, so why doesn’t God seem to heal more today?
For two summers I worked as a
confessor in Lourdes; just hearing confessions, nothing else. It was one of the most wonderful experiences
I’ve had as a priest so far, although it was exhausting. People are amazed when I say that hearing
confessions for hours could be such a wonderful experience as most people
couldn’t imagine anything more boring.
However, the reason it was so great was because it is where a huge
number of miracles take place every day and very real miracles too. When people are given the grace to be able to
confess sins they have been burdened with for years you can physically see a
change in their faces. They are being
healed and it is usually a much deeper healing that a purely physical healing. The body needs healing, but the healing of
the spirit is more important because it affects us much more. Many people came to me and the other priests
and confessed sins they were carrying for 20, 30 and even 40 years. It is a very moving thing to watch the
transformation in people’s faces when they realize they have been
forgiven. A weight is lifted off them
and they are made free. I saw this happen
right before my eyes many times and you can tell straight away that this is the
healing power of God at work.
The greatest healing ministry of
the Church is the forgiveness of sins.
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus was about the forgiveness of
sins. In each mass at the consecration
the priest holds up the chalice and says, ‘This is the cup of my blood, which
will be poured out for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins.’ The mass is all about the forgiveness of
sins, because at each mass we are at the event of Calvary when Jesus was
killed. This was all done so that our
sins could be forgiven. That is why the
mass is so powerful and that is why we pray for everyone and everything in each
mass. God the Son is offered to God the
Father, so that sins may be forgiven.
Because of the way we are made
with body and spirit we need concrete ways of relating to each other and we
need concrete ways of being able to understand God. That is one of the reasons why Jesus gives us
his body and blood in the form of bread and wine. They are things we can see and touch and
taste. We can relate to them. When it comes to the forgiveness of sins
Jesus has given us the gift of confession.
Through confession we have a definite way of being able to confess our
sins to another person in total secrecy and so to be healed. Confession is an extraordinary gift of
healing which the Lord offers us, because He knows how much we need it. It’s not just about confessing everything so
that we can be good enough for God, because we can never be good enough for
God. This is a gift that God has given
us for our benefit, so that we can be healed and not be dragging around the
mistakes of our past with us. The Lord
wants us to be free and to be able to enjoy our lives and this is one of the
wonderful ways that the Lord has done this.
You may ask, ‘Why can’t I just tell God I’m
sorry myself? Why do I have to go to a priest?’ Well you can if you want
to and I’m sure that the Lord forgives us when we do that, but God knows that
in our humanity we have a psychological need to confess to another person. If you don’t believe me listen to the TV and
radio chat shows where you find people ‘confessing’ their sins to the whole world
every day. We have a need to confess,
because that is what helps us to heal.
Jesus said to his Apostles, "Receive
the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you
retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:21–23). Jesus was saying that He would be working
in and through his priests, since it is only God who forgives sins, but the
Lord ordered it in such a way that He would offer his forgiveness through his
priests. That is why we have the gift of
confession. It is meant to be a gift,
not a burden, but Satan is quick to convince us that we don’t need it; that we
can go to God ourselves. Why should we
have to confess to a priest when he is just a sinner? Of course priests are sinners like anyone
else, but this is the gift that God has given us through the priesthood, in
order to help us, to heal us and to help us be free.
All through our lives God offers
us so many things to help us and I’m quite sure this is one of the greatest
gifts of healing that we have, but like everything else that God gives us, it
is never forced on us, simply offered, just like the Eucharist.
The greatest healing ministry of
the Church is the forgiveness of sins.
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