It
has been a hard week for many patients. I have had a mother cry in my office
whose daughter died last year of a sudden heart attack. Another mom’s son died
a year ago just before thanksgiving of a drug overdose. A wonderful Italian
woman just returned from visiting her best friend of 40 years who is dying in her own home.
Then on Wednesday, I was called to help teachers, aids and staff in a
very special school where a third grader died unexpectedly. Finally, I had a woman share that she had to
go back to the hospital a second time this past month. While her doctor was
explaining that further treatment would require surgery to correct an
electrical problem, someone popped their head through the curtain. The doctor
asked if it was OK to let this person into the room. She was surprised because
it turned out to be her brother-in-law who is being treated for cancer. He came
smiling through the curtain, walked around her bed, pulled up a chair and took
by her hand and squeezed it and looked at the doctor and said; “What are you
doing for my girl.” Her reaction, why she never felt so loved and appreciated
in her life. Imagine this that. This man is battling cancer and yet he found the time to come
and visit her.
This coming Sunday, The third Sunday of Advent I will lead an Healing Service. This is what I will say. "This
morning you have come to receive a powerful sacrament, the Anointing of the Sick. God is here ready to perform a miracle. Now close your eyes and imagine
you are the patient in that hospital bed. Imagine, it is God the Father, the
Great Physician, who is talking to you about what he wants to do to help you
feel better and take away your pain. Then imagine, it's Jesus who pops his head
through that curtain, walks around your bed, pulls up a chair and takes you by
the hand and squeezes it and looks up at his Father and says, “now tell me dad,
what are you going to do to make my boy, my girl better.” In your heart,
what would you tell God that needs to be healed?
Is
it a cancer, an addiction, a broken-heart, a past hurt, a pain in your neck,
back or knee, or all over. Do you have a bad ticker, or a soul that feels sad and empty.
Now
before you walk up the aisle to have your forehead and hands anointed, take a
moment to think what needs to be healed in your life. When you show me your
hands, you might say: 'Jesus I want to be healed of my….' and fill
in the words or phrase that best expresses what’s hurting you most at this
stage of your life.
And I will say the healing prayer and ask the Holy Spirit
to come down upon you to give you His strength, His courage and His healing."
Lord,
I pray for all my online Sonshine Friends who are hurting in any physical, emotional
or spiritual way that You come beside them now and take their hand and heal them with Your love and peace.
