Why pray for someone’s healing?
Does God make a person’s life and health dependent on the amount of prayers for him?On various occasions we wish each other, we usually hear: „First of all, I wish you health, because it is the most important thing, especially nowadays.” A friend of mine used to say that happiness is more important than health, because their health on the Titanic was generally good, but they lacked happiness. And seriously speaking, it seems that health is becoming an absolute value today. This is evidenced not only by the growing fashion for a healthy lifestyle (which is fine), but also by the staggering amount of nutrients, dietary supplements, medications and over-the-counter medical devices, miraculous extracts from exotic plants and animals, and drugs that work three times more powerful. than the previous ones. People are looking for a life with no pain, no limitations, no aging, no disability. Non-believers have a choice of many miraculous preparations at their disposal, and believers also include prayer. And this is not at all ironic, but an attempt to show that health is a very important value for both believers and non-believers.
What encourages Christians to pray for healing is, first of all, the fact that the Lord Jesus healed a great number of people during his stay on earth, including those against whom even today’s medicine would be helpless. Why was he doing this? Of course, the answer could be very simple: because he loved people. And there would be a lot of truth in that. However, a doubt remains: if the Lord Jesus loves everyone, why did He heal only some? Well, Christ’s healings had a very specific purpose. When the disciples of the imprisoned John the Baptist came to Jesus with the question: „Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect something else?” cleansing, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor are preached to the Gospel. And blessed is he who does not doubt me „(cf. Mt 11). The healings were to herald the coming of the messianic era foretold by the prophets. Therefore, Jesus combined their love for people with the revelation of himself as God’s Anointed One.
Healings by God’s power did not end with Jesus’ ascension. Even before the resurrection, Christ commanded the Apostles: „Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons!” (Mt 10: 8). The history of the Church in the past and today is full of testimonies about healings. While working in various communities, I have heard testimonies of people who were convinced that they owe their healing to their own prayer and to their faithful fellows. There are some healings that medicine has not been able to explain. I believe in their truthfulness! But what is healing in its essence? It is giving a person full strength for a while. After some time (sometimes measured in decades) every person healed will deteriorate in health, fall ill and die. It is like the resurrection of Lazarus: a beautiful sign of Jesus’ friendship, a contribution to faith for many Jews, an announcement of the resurrection. But the resurrected Lazarus grew old and died; just as each of us awaits in the tomb the day of the resurrection of the dead and the Last Judgment. I do not want to diminish the value of healing in this way, because it always brings specific good, but I want to say that health is not an absolute value. There is a passage of the Gospel in which the Lord Jesus uncompromisingly compares the value of physical health with the value of salvation and eternal life: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter eternal life maimed than to go to hell into unquenchable fire with both hands. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled than to be thrown into hell with two legs. If your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to be thrown into hell with two eyes, where their worm does not die and the fire does not go out ”(Mk 9: 43-48). It was very important for Christ’s disciples that they had a well-structured hierarchy of values: health is important, but salvation is most important. If we have it so arranged, nothing prevents us from praying for healing of our diseases. But how to do it?
Here we compete in finding ways. Sometimes we get the impression that some forms of prayer for healing are more effective than others. I remember a conversation with my parishioner in one of the communities where I served. She came to me before the morning Mass. and asked if Masses were celebrated in our parish. for healing. I replied yes and that the next such Mass would start in 5 minutes. She was positively surprised. After the Mass however, she came to me with a grudge. According to her, it was not a healing Mass at all. A dozen or so participating people, no special prayers, not even a short homily about healing. And how is that so? Then I tried to explain to her that the Lord Jesus also during this Holy Mass. he could perform a miracle of healing if he found the faith needed to do so. She wasn’t entirely convinced. So will the Holy Masses be for healing, during which special prayers are said, words of discernment are uttered, people use intercessory prayer, are they meaningless? Well no! What is needed for healing? Belief! If prayers, songs of praise, words of knowledge, the intercession of my confreres stimulate my faith in the possibility of healing, then they certainly have their value. If only I remember that Jesus heals, not the form, length or specific manner of prayer. This does not mean that I cannot be „persistent” in praying for healing. Do you remember the parable of the widow and the judge who would not defend her (Lk 18: 1-8)? It was the stubbornness and frequency of her requests that made him finally decide to help her. Jesus teaches us here that perseverance and determination in prayer can change God’s judgments!
However, it also happens that despite fervent prayer for healing, someone does not experience this grace. He is alone with his suffering. He often takes offense at Jesus, although he never promised his disciples freedom from suffering. He can then either become a bitter person living with a sense of failure, or he can do with his suffering what Jesus did with him: turn it into an instrument for saving the world. St. Paul, who wrote: „Now I rejoice in suffering for you, and in my body I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s sufferings for the good of his body, which is the Church” (Col 1:24). Suffering will never become good. However, we can, following Jesus’ example, make something that is not good into an instrument of salvation. However, this requires a great deal of maturity in faith.