Saturday May 25, 2024

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“Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters of the Church, and they should pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.” (James 5:14-15)

Good News Reflection for:

Saturday of the 7th Week in Ordinary Time
May 25, 2024

Today’s Readings:

James 5:13-20
Psalm 141:1-3, 8
Mark 10:13-16
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052524.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-may-25-2024

Will we see more supernatural healings?

This Saturday’s first reading contains Christ’s initiation of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. I wonder if every priest has the faith in Jesus to work actual miracles through this sacrament.

Saint Paul also said, “Pray for one another, that you may be healed.” He wasn’t giving a workshop to priests. He was speaking to the clergy and laity of all Christian communities. As the inspired word of God, this is timeless: It’s meant for all clergy and laity today too.

And he continued: “The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.” 

Several years ago at a Catholic Charismatic healing service, I prayed fervently with everyone else for my own healing and the healing of others, and yet very few people received any noticeable healing. This has been the case at every Catholic healing service that I’ve attended for the past many years. At this particular event, I asked the Lord, “Why so few healings? Isn’t it Your desire for all to be healed like when you, Jesus, walked the Earth?” 

I heard his answer loud and clear in my heart, and it was no doubt that Jesus was the source of the answer. He said: “Because my people do not repent.” In that very moment I was filled with the knowledge of how very important a penance service would have been as the foundation of the healing service. And I also deeply realized that the penance service would have to be preceded by a powerful speaker motivating hearts to change.

In examining my own conscience, the Holy Spirit has shown me that I need to repent from the disbelief that came from the culture I grew up in. I have been calling God a liar!

Most of the Christian world that I experienced in both my Protestant upbringing and Catholic adulthood has believed Satan’s lie about miracles being a thing of the past. The “age of miracles” has been widely equated with the “Age of the Apostles”, i.e., for the start of the Church but not for today.

This lie is utter nonsense! It is the devil making the Church (myself included) impotent and our evangelization efforts much less effective than they could be. God has not changed. And Jesus did not lie when he said in John 14:12, “Those who believe in me will do the same works that I do and even greater ones.”

To bring our evil world to Christ and disbelievers to faith, we absolutely must and need to be a Church that doesn’t just tell people about Christ. We need to show them Christ. And this does not mean simply to show them love and other nice things, because even atheists love and do nice things. People are not converted by hearing about Christ. They are brought to the true Faith by hearing Christ himself, meeting Christ through a miraculous encounter. 

Researchers say that we need to hear something six times in order to retain 25% of it in long-term memory. That means that for truth to sink into our brains deeply enough to affect our souls and become influential in our lives, we need to hear it 24 times. But at the same time, Satan is trying to rob us of this. Demons and the world and even voices within the Church have been repeatedly programming our brains (and therefore our souls, too) with ideas and teachings that contradict the Spirit of Truth (the Holy Spirit). We need to spend more time dwelling on the Word of God than anything else.

But realize this: A truth believed in but not shared is a truth that easily fades away. If you have access to a prayer group or any small study group where you can share and witness the supernatural, make attendance your priority. If you’re already attending, bring others.

Note: Good News Ministries has a web page where online prayer groups are listed, and if you belong to such a group, please add your prayer group to our site. Visit gnm.org/prayers/find-a-prayer-group-to-join.

If you know anyone who believes God when he says that we are to lay hands on the sick and they will recover, make it your priority to get together with that person regularly to discuss matters of faith. And please feel free to share with me your faith-building journey so that I, too, can grow and so that I can pass it on to others — for example, at wordbytes.org/miracles.

© 2024 by Terry A. Modica

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