Whoever believes....

I sometimes wonder how many Catholics really trust in the Lord Jesus and His words of truth. For example, Our Master told us that, "Whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, he will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father" (Jn 14: 12). The commission to carry on His healing work was not given strictly to ministerial priests, but to the common priesthood of the faithful, to "whoever believes" in the Lord Jesus. Let's stop and meditate very carefully on these words since we live in a word-saturated society with information overload.

The Lord Jesus, our Creator and Redeemer, assures us that if we believe in Him, we will accomplish even greater works than He performed because He will intercede for us to the Father and because of the corporate dimension of our faith - our works are performed not by one man but by all those who profess Jesus as Lord. Jesus now uses "whoever believes" in Him as an extension of Himself to cure new multitudes of people with His love. We who believe become His hands.

It is so easy for us to believe that the gift of healing is reserved only for certain individuals who have received a unique and supernatural call from God to heal others. But God does not have favorites: "..In truth, I see that God shows no partiality . Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him." (Acts 10: 34, 35).

We might argue, "But I'm not worthy." Who is? The Good News is that the Lord Jesus came to save us "while we were still sinners" (Romans 5: 8), and desires to use us with all of our weaknesses, our inadequacies and our impurities. When we acknowledge our own sin, our own weakness, then we rely on the Lord Jesus. For, as St. Paul reminds us, this is the source of supernatural strength: "Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12: 10).

So enough excuses. To truly have faith in God means that we trust that the Father's will for us is much more wonderful than anything we can imagine. Reflect on John 10: 10. When I was 18 years old, I nearly died. My appendix ruptured and I had a temperature of 107. But before toxins could spread throughout my body, my mother - a truly amazing woman with many charismatic gifts - prayed over me. There was the sensation of heat. The rupture mysteriously sealed - something doctors were at a loss to understand. But we knew what had happened. "Why, it's nothing short of miraculous," one doctor quipped. "I know," I responded. Our God is a God of miracles.

And so we pray:

Lord, You invite all who are burdened to come to You. Allow your healing hand to heal me. Touch my soul with Your compassion for others. Touch my heart with Your courage and infinite love for all. Touch my mind with Your wisdom, that my mouth may always proclaim Your praise. Teach me to reach out to You in my need, and help me to lead others to You by my example. Most loving Heart of Jesus, bring me health in body and spirit that I may serve You with all my strength. Touch gently this life which You have created, now and forever.

Amen?

Bishops take stand against Reiki at convents and retreat centers citing "danger of malevolent forces."

Michael Brown has warned of the dangers of Reiki in the past. So have I. In fact, as I mentioned in this post written back in 2005, the La Salette Missionaries have offered Reiki at their Center for Christian Living in Attleboro.

And as this website explains, Patricia Warren, who has been voted "most recognized Reiki Master in Massachusetts," by Spirit of Change Magazine, has developed the "Touch of Compassion" - a "Christian Approach" to Hands on Healing, which she offers at Ruah Spirituality Institute, Adelynrood Conference Center, La Salette Center for Christian Living, and numerous Episcopal and Unitarian churches.

Ms. Warren apprenticed with Guru Sewak Singh Khalsa and practiced reflexology and energy massage while studying kundalini yoga, numerology, meditation and the Sikh religion. She has also studied Transcendental Meditation and hatha yoga.

The Ruah Spirituality Institute is, in reality, a New Age organization which offers Centering Prayer, Reiki, and "Eco-Spirituality." According to the Institute's website (go here), it will be offering An Evening with James Carroll, the former Catholic priest and Boston Globe columnist who has come under fire for his anti-Catholic views and his revisionist history regarding the record of Pope Pius XII. See this Catholic League article for example.

A sense of balance: Faith and Reason; Natural and Supernatural

In his 1998 Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason), Pope John Paul II said that, "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth - in a word, to know himself - so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves" (cf. Ex 33: 18; Ps 27: 8-9; 63: 2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2).

And, in No. 9 of this wonderful Encyclical Letter, John Paul cites the First Vatican Council: "The First Vatican Council teaches...that the truth attained by philosophy and the truth of Revelation are neither identical nor mutually exclusive: 'There exists a twofold order of knowledge, distinct not only as regards their source, but also as regards their object. With regard to the source, because we know in one by natural reason, in the other by divine faith. With regard to the object, because besides those things which natural reason can attain, there are proposed for our belief mysteries hidden in God which, unless they are divinely revealed, cannot be known'. Based upon God's testimony and enjoying the supernatural assistance of grace, faith is of an order other than philosophical knowledge which depends upon sense perception and experience and which advances by the light of the intellect alone. Philosophy and the sciences function within the order of natural reason; while faith, enlightened and guided by the Spirit, recognizes in the message of salvation the “fullness of grace and truth” (cf. Jn 1:14) which God has willed to reveal in history and definitively through his Son, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Jn 5:9; Jn 5:31-32).

Why is this point so important? Dr. Dietrich von Hildebrand explains: "To see the purely human aspect of things is a necessary foundation for seeing the supernatural aspect. One who does not see the human aspect is insensitive and superficial, and his attitude is incompatible with the true faith. The deeper one sees the natural tragedy of death [for example], then the more one is able to grasp the tremendous significance of our redemption through Christ, and the more one possesses that true faith which St. Paul expresses by asking, 'O death, where is your sting?' But as soon as one jumps over the human aspect without passing through it, one does not ascend to the supernatural aspect, but rather replaces the natural with the supernatural aspect, which can only be attained by faith - one treats the supernatural aspect as if it were the natural, one takes it for granted, and omits that sursum corda, that ascent into the supernatural world which is possible only in faith. If the human aspect is not duly seen, then the aspect of faith is naturalized, and dragged down to the level of the obvious. If the human aspect is suppressed or omitted, then the aspect of faith becomes ungenuine, unreal." (The Devastated Vineyard, pp. 224-225).

We need to maintain this sense of balance between faith and reason, natural and supernatural, at all times. Without it, our life as Christians becomes distorted. For example, some have made an idol out of learning and have embraced a false intellectualism which ignores faith in an attempt to avoid the will of God and His Commandments. This is what Soren Kierkegaard meant when he said, "It is to get rid of doing God's will that we have invented learning...we shield ourselves by hiding behind tomes." (Kierkegaard, quoted in Lowrie, Kierkegaard, New York, Harper, 1962, Vol. II, p. 539).

In an article which addresses illness and healing, and which may be found here, Michael Brown writes, "'Strange as it may seem to many Christians today, the main factor in conversion [in olden times] was exorcism -- the driving out of demons,' MacNutt [referring to Fr. Francis MacNutt] notes emphatically in a book called Healing. 'Belief in the supernatural was accepted in those days and Christianity was presented as being in direct conflict with pagan gods, something like a spiritual 'shoot-out.' That's in contrast to the modern way of attributing ailments (whether bodily or mental) to purely physical and psychological effects. Perhaps the safest approach is to first cast out potential spirits. Exposure to evil can cause maladies.
'What has happened to the major thrust of early Christianity: to heal and exorcise?' asked the former professor, who now runs a ministry in Jacksonville, Florida. Perhaps the decline of fervor dates to a decline in belief in prayer for healing. What happened in all those centuries to diminish the Church's belief in Christ's healing ministry is complicated; but certainly one of the main factors was that Platonic, Stoic, and Manichean thought infected Christian spirituality.
'Another attitude, one of superiority toward healing, holds that miracles were needed to establish the Church, but now that people believe, there is no further need for signs or proof,' he says. 'This attitude is the outcome of an overemphasis on doctrine: healing of the sick takes place, not primarily because God is compassionate and desires to heal broken humanity, but because He wants to make a point.' In other words: Christianity has been over-intellectualized. It is a fact that both healing and exorcism have been shoved aside in modern Catholicism -- which strikes at the heart of our faith."

As Avery Cardinal Dulles explained in his book "The Assurance of Things Hoped For: A Theology of Christian Faith," "Thomas Aquinas at one point defines faith as 'the habit of mind whereby eternal life begins in us, causing the mind to assent to things that do not appear' (S.Th., 2-2, 4.1). Later he explains that, 'since in assenting to matters of faith a person is raised above his own nature, it is necessary the ascent arise from a supernatural principle moving the person inwardly; and this principle is God.' (S.Th., 2-2, 6.1). Once faith is understood as a foretaste of the beatific vision it follows evidently that it cannot be other than supernatural. Only God can impart, when he chooses, a share in his own divine life, which lies beyond the capacities and merits of any creature." (pp. 225-226).

We ignore this balance of faith and reason, natural and supernatural, at our own peril. As John Paul said, "..reason and faith cannot be separated without diminishing the capacity of men and women to know themselves, the world and God in an appropriate way" (Fides et Ratio, No. 17).

Purge yourself and call down the fire power of the Holy Spirit

It was Fr. Michael Scanlan (God love him) who said, "I really don't believe we are meant to be limited any longer. We are meant to be FREE; Free in the Spirit of Jesus Christ to do and to be all the Father is calling us to do and be. Only by truly desiring this healing to actually take place in our lives, by expecting it, by being sincerely repentant for allowing ourselves to have been bound by the law of sin in the past, and by being aware of this constant process of healing within us as an ever-deepening union and relationship with Christ will we come to understand the great act of recreation the Lord Jesus has accomplished for us and in us - restoring us even NOW in Him, to the image of the Father! AMEN!! May it be so!" (The Power in Penance, Charismatic Renewal Books, 1972, Page 58).

Do we really and truly desire the healing power of Christ? Do we really and truly want to unleash the fire power of the Holy Spirit into our lives so that we in turn may kindle the earth with that Holy Fire? Then let us remember to purge our hearts of resentment. Let us remember to forgive and love and to confess our own sins. We read in 1 John 3: 22-24: "And we receive from Him whatever we ask because we keep His Commandment that we should love one another and believe in the name of Jesus." And we read in Mark 11: 24-25: "And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also may forgive you." Still again, in John 15: 12-17, we read: "This is My Commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you...so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you." And lastly, in James 5: 16, we read: "Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed."

We can be truly free and filled with the Fire of the Holy Spirit if we do these things. We must first purge ourselves though. And so let us pray (without worrying about the lesser faults of others):

Because I am obnoxious, forgive me Lord.
Because I am dishonest, forgive me Lord.
Because I am egotistical, forgive me Lord.
Because I am undisciplined, forgive me Lord.
Because I am weak, forgive me Lord.
Because I am impure, forgive me Lord.
Because I am arrogant, forgive me Lord.
Because I am self-centered, forgive me Lord.
Because I am pompous, forgive me Lord.
Because I am insincere, forgive me Lord.
Because I am unchaste, forgive me Lord.
Because I am grasping, forgive me Lord.
Because I am judgmental, forgive me Lord.
Because I am impatient, forgive me Lord.
Because I am shallow, forgive me Lord.
Because I am inconsistent, forgive me Lord.
Because I am unfaithful, forgive me Lord.
Because I am immoral, forgive me Lord.
Because I am ungrateful, forgive me Lord.
Because I am disobedient, forgive me Lord.
Because I am selfish, forgive me Lord.
Because I am lukewarm, forgive me Lord.
Because I am slothful, forgive me Lord.
Because I am unloving, forgive me Lord.
Because I am uncommitted, forgive me Lord.
Because I am sinful, forgive me Lord.
Because I am loved by You, thank you Lord!

Prayer composed by Father Raymond A. Pavlick
Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson, N.J.

There are so many people today, even Catholics, who are carrying around tremendous burdens so needlessly. This because they have not embraced the Lord's forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance. And because they have not forgiven those who have wronged them or sinned against them in some way. This past Sunday, Fr. H. Edward Chalmers of the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts told his parishioners that he believes more people will be possessed in the future as our society continues to drift further away from God. I agree. But it doesn't have to be that way! When we hold on to resentments and hurts, we allow Satan and the other evil spirits to work in our lives. But when we truly forgive, when we truly let go of hurts and animosities, we are freed by the Lord Jesus from our own sins and failings and the Holy Spirit is able to breathe His Holy Fire into us!

So what shall it be? Slavery to sin and vice, hurts and animosities? Or healing and freedom which unleashes an irresistible force of love and power into our lives?

I say: Bring down the Fire!