by Fr. Tommy Lane
When you are sick, whom do you visit to help you get better? You go to your doctor. How do you meet your doctor? You go to the surgery. When do you go to the surgery? The doctor has surgery hours, and you go during these hours. There is another doctor, Jesus. He will also help you get better. How and where do you go to meet him? You can meet him anytime you turn to him in prayer, but his special surgery times are the sacraments, especially Mass.
Mary Ann Cortes, a manic depressive, after seventeen years of treatment enjoyed no improvement but was healed through the Mass. This is her account:
I am coming to know that the Eucharist is the greatest healing sacrament and that every Mass is a healing service. For seventeen years I was in and out of every mental hospital in the region of New Orleans, Louisiana. I was diagnosed as manic depressive and given almost every treatment available to psychiatric patients. The doctors gave up hope of my recovering my mental health and doomed me to a life of mood-altering drugs. When I went to bed at night, I was afraid of waking up to another day of terror. After I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and began to attend healing Masses, I became mentally, emotionally, and physically well. Today I am a new person in Christ. I’m not afraid of the morning anymore. In each Mass I unite all that I am with Jesus’ sacrifice. In that union with Him, I receive into my being the risen life of Jesus which transforms me more and more. I identify with Him and receive His life. The more I actively participate in the Mass, the more real He becomes to me. Jesus Himself enters into me and heals from the inside. (Taken from Healing Through the Mass pages 3-4 by Robert DeGrandis, published and copyright 1992 by Resurrection Press and used here by permission of the publishers.)
Father Richard Woldum of Los Angeles, California was ordained in 1979. Shortly afterwards he was assigned as hospital chaplain for one year to St Joseph’s Hospital in Alton, Illinois. This is his account:
One morning I received a call to come to the emergency room to see an 11-year-old boy named Johnny who was dying. I found him on a breathing machine, his head swollen very large.
Johnny’s parents told me that he had been riding his bike on a gravel road near his home when a truck came flying over the hill and hit him head-on. The collision caused him to be thrown into the nearby field. When the ambulance arrived the medics found his head cut wide open...
When I asked Johnny’s parents if he had been baptized, they said, “No.” They informed me they attended no church but prayed at home as a family. I asked them if they would like me to baptize Johnny. They glanced at each other as if to say, “It couldn’t cause any harm,” then said to me, “Go ahead.” They also said if I wanted to, I could baptize him into the Catholic faith. That night, with the parents and two nurses as witnesses, I baptized Johnny.
The next morning, I was doing communion rounds when my beeper went off. Johnny’s doctor wanted me in the intensive care unit. “What you do last night?” he asked in broken English, as I met him outside Johnny’s room. I explained to the doctor, a Buddhist, that I had baptized Johnny (with the permission of his parents) so that he could go to heaven. When I asked him why he was so concerned, he informed me that the boy’s swelling had disappeared. The doctor was still convinced that the boy would die, however, or if he lived, remain a vegetable, never moving, talking, or even moving his eyes.
That night Johnny’s parents thanked me for baptizing him. I then explained about the anointing of the sick, and asked if they would like Johnny to receive that sacrament. With their agreement and in their presence, I anointed Johnny.
The next morning during communion rounds the doctor again paged me on my beeper. He met me at the door of intensive care and directed me to Johnny’s room, explaining on the way that he had heard from the nurses that I had again prayed for Johnny.
Then he pointed to Johnny’s eyes and asked, “What you do?” I saw that Johnny’s eyes were moving. “It is just the power of Jesus through prayers for the sick,” I responded. He gave a faintly sarcastic grin and said, “It no matter. Boy no talk or move. He remain vegetable.”
It was now the third night, counting the night of the accident. I suggested to the parents that they permit me to give Johnny the sacrament of confirmation. They agreed.
The following morning his legs and arms were moving. The doctor said to me in front of the parents, “I no longer in control.” He was simply unable to explain what was happening. The parents turned to me and said they wanted to become Catholics. I recommended that they wait and see what happened to Johnny before making a final decision.
That evening when I explained to them about the Eucharist, they said they wanted this for Johnny too. I gave him some Precious Blood with an eye dropper. The next morning he was making sounds.
Fr Woldum was away for the weekend and when he returned, he continues his account:
When I checked in on Johnny upon my return, I learned he had been transferred to the third floor, which was the surgery unit. I went upstairs to see him, fearing that he had gone back to surgery. He was sitting on his bed, talking to his mother.
After his recovery they took another x-ray of his head and found that the part of his brain...had grown back.
When I eventually talked to Johnny’s parents about becoming Catholics, they informed me they would continue praying at home. The doctor in the case started looking into Christianity. Three nurses converted to Catholicism. (Taken from Healing through the Mass pages 13-15 by Robert DeGrandis, published and copyright 1992 by Resurrection Press and used here by permission of the publishers.)
In the Gospel today, we heard of Jesus curing Peter’s mother-in-law in Capernaum, and curing many others who were sick. (Mark 1:29-39) Jesus, who healed so many one evening in Capernaum, is willing to heal you too in this Mass and every Mass. The greatest moment for healing is when you receive Jesus in Holy Communion. During those precious minutes when you and Jesus are united very specially, ask him in faith for the healing you need, and adore and praise him for all he has done for you. As well as going to your doctor when you get sick, go also to Jesus.
Copyright © Fr. Tommy Lane 2000
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More homilies for the Fifth Sunday Year B
Turn to Jesus when suffering 2021
Meet Jesus and be lifted up by him! 2015
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