My Thoughts on 22/09/2021
Today we hear Jesus sending out the twelve. “He sent them to to preach (proclaim) the Kingdom of God and to heal” and they went out proclaiming the Good News and healing everywhere.
Jesus was asking them not just to preach the word but to demonstrate it with deeds of power. Healing has always been part of the message of the Gospel. This healing continued in the early Church and certainly continues today or does it?
I recommend a book written by Mary Healy; “Healing: Brings the Gift of God’s Mercy to the World.” Towards the end of the book she asks ; “How do we proclaim God’s word, the kingdom in words and deeds.”
She outlines three simple things that can open us to the Lords healing.
- Intimacy with Jesus: fruitfulness comes from being alongside him or it will not come at all. We get to know him by spending time with him. The closer we come to Jesus, the more we are filled with God’s unconditional love, and the more we long to give it away to the lost and the broken.
- Ask, Seek, Knock. God wants us to ask for good things in Jesus name. We need to ask on the authority and in union with Jesus. We should ask for the gift of healing, and all the graces needed to exercise it effectively. “Ask the Lord for a share in his heart of infinite compassion for the lost, the hurting, the lovely, the sick and infirm.”
- “Do whatever he tells you”. These are the words that Mary spoke at the marriage feast of Cana. To see the Lord’s healing requires listening to him, choosing to be obedient, taking risks and trusting that he will lead us.
