A Time of Healing

As Kathy and I grow old, we are becoming more and more aware of our own weaknesses, and of the slow but steady decline of our bodies' ability to keep itself alive and thriving.  Kathy has always been the healthy one, I have been the one consigned to taking eight medications and three or for other popular over the counter supplements to keep my blood pressure controlled, my heart from suddenly stopping, my cholesterol in check, and my gout in abeyance.  But recently her health and eyesight have taken a significant turn for the worse, and so on one August Sunday we found ourselves attending mass at the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Williston.  It was communion Sunday, but then it is always communion Sunday in the Roman Church, and we partook of the sacrament with the other worshippers with only a slight tinge of hesitation.  Although we may be officially protestant in this time of our lives, the Roman Church always says "Once a Catholic, always a Catholic", and so we took to heart the admonition of "Welcome Home Catholic", at least as far as sharing in the worship of the God we serve.  What lightened my heart tremendously was seeing the old forms made present in a new and living way for this generation, and what pleased both Kathy and I was receiving the full lectionary readings of the scriptures, Psalm, Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospel, and then having the pastor actually preach from the Gospel and relate the particular story of Jesus to our immediate needs and focus.

But I digress.  We actually went to the church to participate in a healing service led by a Catholic priest, Father Lance Harlow, who has a healing ministry that he offers to all comers.  What struck me by the service was the vast difference between it and most protestant healing services I have gone to.  It was simple, it was reverent, it was powerful, it was conducted in silence.  It was also unusual for a former pre-Vatican II altar boy.  Father Harlow displayed the consecrated host in a monstrance on a small table in front of a kneeler and then told each person seeking healing to come to the front, kneel down, and touch the bottom of the monstrance as if you were touching the hem of Jesus' garment, and then just tell Jesus what it was that you wished Him to do.  Any pre-Vatican II Catholic knows that no one directly touches a monstrance, when a priest elevates it or it is moved by a server it is always through the outer vestment, and I sensed immediately that there was something genuinely divine present at work.  Several people were visibly affected, there were assistants to help you if you needed it.  And then, about an hour after it began, Father Harlow closed the service and left without ceremony and we went home.  The work was the Lord's, there was no reason to linger on, it was either done or not.

I record this event solely to introduce this question, "If you could ask Jesus for anything, what would it be?"  That was the question Kathy and I wrestled with in the service.  I know that is supposed to be available to us anytime we pray, but all I can say that in this sanctuary that question was more real than it has ever been, and I knew that if I asked, I would be heard.  Not wanting to appear greedy, I chose to forgo asking for healing for the different ailments I brought in with me and asked for something else instead.  It only remains to be seen what the manifestation to that request will bring.  More than anything else I knew that Jesus was present, not in theory but in reality, that I was present, and that something divine had occurred.