The Light from Christ comes to instruct us. Sometimes, it seems trivial — we look for the spectacular. Often, He nudges us on how to live and eat. He is subtle.
“An apple a day may help keep the doctor away, but if you add a carrot a day he’ll probably stay away!” writes a priest. “The carrot is the king of the vegetables. It is loaded with vitamin A which helps your immune system.”
We choose (free choice) our emotions.
“We let jealousy invade us,” said another priest. “It torments us and turns into an actual illness. We start saying bad things and making negative comments.”
We are blinded not by the light but by the will — warned when we lack peace.
“Do you know how we lose peace?” asked this same priest. “When we begin to see only one aspect of a person, an aspect that we don’t like, ignoring the whole person.”
Then criticism enters. By focusing on the one thing that upsets us, we are blinded. We lose sight of the beauty in the person.
When we lose sight of that, we lose love for the person and there is that much less total love within us. When it leaves, it leaves a void where illness finds roost. Wrong thoughts “eat away” at us — rot the flesh, the bones. If you do not forgive others (and yourself), you can be held back from healing.
See Jesus walking through your life as He walked through Galilee, as He walked through the Gadarenes, and let Him lay His Hands on what ails you most — the deep wounds to which demons can attach.
Evil cannot grasp love nor inhabit a place in us that is filled with it.
Says the Lord, do not bind to the condemnation of the devil (always look for that bright place beyond).
Do you think God is always trying to throw a curse at you, to trip you up or hurt you? Do you always feel like you are on His “bad side”?
Healing is essential to the message of Jesus and carries us all the way back to the very idea of Him. When there is a physical cause for an infirmity, a physical cure should be sought, along with prayer. We must hold our physicians, says Sirach, in a place of honor.
For as it says, “he is essential to you, and God it was Who established his profession”; it is the Lord Who gives our doctors, surgeons, and technicians their wisdom. “My son, ” says Sirach (38:1-14), ” delay not, but pray to God, Who will heal you: Flee wickedness; let your hands be just, cleanse your heart of every sin… Then give the doctor his place lest he leave; for you need him too. There are times that give him an advantage, and he too beseeches God that his diagnosis may be correct, and his treatment will bring a cure.”
At the same moment, if the physician is not in touch with the Lord, this can lead to a spiral of unnecessary tests that cause tremendous stress: sometimes, finding things that might dissolve in time, transient cancer. This is why it is critical to pray about every step we take and go with what gives a sense of tranquility. At the doctor’s office, pray for the doctor to say and do and see the right things.
Pray against false diagnoses. Pray for good judgment. Pray for insight. Cast out stress. Clear the spiritual air. Take Saint Joseph, Padre Pio, and Brother André with you. Dark thoughts and dreams are no good and can indicate attempts by the devil at affecting your energy, health, and happiness (the last he especially rejoices in taking). When you are depleted you are susceptible to sickness. What suppresses the spirit can suppress the immune system; what causes confusion can confuse the DNA; what stings the soul may also be a nettle; what darkens your eternal destination, lessening your chance of Heaven, can cast a shadow over your organs. Identify those areas that are “contaminated” and give them to God — His Wounds on the Cross. Love Him in front of the Crucifix! Go to a doctor but go first to God.
[resources: The God of Healing]
