Lord, please heal me…

Author’s Note:
Last week a friend sent me an email requesting prayers for a family member who is sick. I then remembered how God through the power of confession healed my father. It became an opportunity to share God’s love. Last night, I felt tired and sleepy. So although, I was supposed to finish this article and post it last night, I said “Lord, I will wake up early and post it tomorrow.” This morning before six I was in the rest room when I chanced upon two articles in the Catholic News Herald (July 4, 2014 edition, page 2) about confession. A few minutes later, I was gathering my materials for prayer time when I just went shuffling through papers in a folder I gathered from a pile of “to be organized.” Inside that folder was a prayer for healing which I thought would go well with this article on confession. Yay! Through all these discoveries that took place in a matter of about 15 minutes before prayer time, I believe God was guiding me in what He wanted me to share this morning. As Sarah Young puts in today’s Jesus Calling Devotional (2004, p. 198) “TRUST ME IN ALL YOUR THOUGHTS….trusting Me, thanking Me – and those thoughts become more natural.” I hope you have a wonderfully blessed day in the company of the Holy Trinity and our Blessed Mother Mary. Let me end with a quote from Romans 8: 9 and 11. Happy reading!

You, however, live not by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has made a home in you. Indeed, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has made his home in you, then he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

Can a miracle possibly take place after going to confession, that is, after telling our sins to the priest and then receiving absolution? Or can something wonderful happen after we visit this so-called sacrament of penance and reconciliation? If so, how does it happen?

First, let me define “sacrament.” In Our Catholic Faith Guide, Rev. Msgr. John F. Barry, P.A. tells us that a sacrament is an effective sign, that is, it truly brings about what it represents. There are actually seven sacraments or symbolic actions initiated by Jesus Christ. These are Baptism, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, Matrimony, Eucharist, and Penance and Reconciliation. In the case of the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, we not only celebrate the forgiveness of God, but when we actually receive God’s forgiveness, we are reconciled to Him.

I read about confession’s tremendous ability in warding off evil and the darkness of one’s soul as experienced by a former nun and now saint, Maria Faustina Kowalska. She revealed this in her Diary Divine Mercy in My Soul.

Her father confessor consoled her with these words: “This is a sign, he told me that God loves you very much and that He has great confidence in you, since He is sending you such trials.” She continued, “One thing did surprise me: it often happened, at the time when I was suffering greatly, these terrible torments would disappear suddenly just as I was approaching the confessional; but as soon as I had left the confessional, all these torments would again seize me with even greater ferocity.”

Well, let us hope that we would not have to go through such torments as Saint Faustina did. I, for one would not like to have such, especially after just having gone to confession! But if we do experience such torments, we have to remember what Saint Faustina said, “God never tries us beyond what we are able to suffer.”

My family has been blessed to be a witness to the life changing effect of confession. It happened to my tatay (father) more than a decade ago. The setting was in the Philippines, a third world country in Southeast Asia where Catholicism is the predominant religion. This was the place where I was born.

When my tatay was in his late 60s, he suffered from inguinal hernia. My tatay said this happened because he lifted heavy luggages on our trip to Thailand, where my brother priest served as a missionary. As years passed, whenever it happened, the swelling got bigger. Whenever he experienced this condition, he would go to his bedroom and lie in bed. Through prayers and patient waiting, his pain subsided as the protruding hernia often went back into his abdomen after applying careful pressure. Several minutes later, he was able to stand up and do some non-strenuous activities.

However, one day, the bulging and the pain started early in the morning and stayed on. The protruding hernia would not go back even as he applied pressure on it. We did not have health insurance for any member of our family as that would be an extra expense for an already tight budget. Both of my parents were just average government employees with two children already enrolled in college. In the late afternoon, my Dad asked for help. He asked to be brought to the hospital. He could hardly walk. His face grimaced in pain, as he held onto my Mom who assisted him into a waiting taxi and off to Capitol Medical Center. They arrived in the hospital and after seeing the emergency room doctor, my Dad agreed with the doctor’s recommendation— to have surgery. He was rolled off in a wheelchair to a ward while preparations went underway for his hernioplasty.

While lying in bed, he asked for a Catholic priest. The priest came later that evening. He heard the confession of my tatay, who gave him absolution, and then left the room. According to my mother, the priest had hardly stepped out of the room when my father’s pain left him and the protruding hernia disappeared. My dad shouted, “I’m healed! Salamat sa Diyos! (Thanks be to God!)” as he and my Mom unceasingly praised God for the miracle that took place. The surgery was cancelled.

But how did that happen? Can the sacrament of reconciliation actually heal? Based on what happened to my tatay, yes it can. The penitent initially realizes that he has offended God and he feels remorse for his sins. Then he goes to the confessional box in the church to tell his sins to the priest or in this case, the priest went to visit him. The priest listens to his sins and gives him a penance. A penance is an action that he has to fulfill, usually in the form of prayers, in order to show that he is actually sorry for his sins. When the priest performs this sacrament, he is not doing it as a human being but as Jesus Christ’s representative conferred on him through the sacrament of Holy Orders and also through the power of the Holy Spirit.

As Drano is to clogged pipes, confession is to congested souls. After a week, a month, six months, years, decade or decades, we all get backed up by the dark stains of our actions and inactions. Confession is the powerful vacuum that sucks up all the debris of our past mistakes. It is fast-acting. The moment you have received absolution and have done your penance, you are a new self. It is healing. Jesus is the greatest healer. With our souls pure, radiant, and free from ALL sins (past and present) Jesus can now work wonders in us and through us. Most of all, it is free. All that is required is a trip to the confessional room, or if you are sick, a request for the priest to come to you. No cash or credit card needed. Graces overflow when our souls are clean and we are better able to listen to God’s message. The lines of communication between God and us become crystal clear. Then we can celebrate— “A psalm of thanksgiving. Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth!” (Psalm 100:1 NLT)