I have been preaching this month, really a little longer than that, to help prepare everyone for this Parish Mission which is essentially starting next weekend.  Fr. Greg Bramlage, who is from Texas, will be here with his team, the Missionaries of the New Evangelization, so he will be preaching at all of the Masses next weekend.

 

So I just want to recap a little bit.  Since they were here last February, as our bible readings have allowed, I have been preaching about physical healings happening to others and being expectant in our faith about receiving healings ourselves.  It turns out our readings talk about healings (and other Gifts of the Spirit) quite often!

 

In their first Mission here, they focused on two things often necessary for healings, forgiveness and repentance.  These things come up quite a bit in scriptures too, so back before Christmas I preached about forgiving people in our lives, especially forgiving family members going into all of our Christmas celebrations, but we need to forgive everyone in our lives, including ourselves, we are often our hardest critic. 

 

Then at the end of December I went to a conference in Michigan called Encounter which focused on the gifts of the Holy Spirit so I have spent a lot of time recapping what I heard there along with what has been going on in the scriptures, they’ve aligned very well to talk about everything in preparation for our Parish Mission.  Specifically:

• On January 2, on Epiphany, I preached about my major epiphany this year, that people could be healed physically through prayer.  I talked about my dad who was sure he broke his arm, but mom prayed over him, and his mobility returned and his arm was not broken.  Sorry if I left you in suspense for the month.  But physical healings through prayer are real, and I have come to expect it, so come expecting that on Monday and Wednesday of the Mission.
• On January 9th, on the Baptism of the Lord, I talked about how Jesus came to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with Fire.  This happens in degrees throughout our lives, received according to our preparedness and need, and we will be praying for a new Pentecost, a Baptism in the Holy Spirit on Tuesday of the Mission.
• On January 16th I spoke about the different gifts of the Holy Spirit which are given during the baptism, but the point of the Gifts are to help us know of God’s love for us, and then to help other people to know of God’s love for them, which was part of the reason for the wine at the Wedding Feast at Cana.  
• On January 23rd I preached about how we all have some gifts from the Holy Spirit, and even if we have seemingly no gifts like Mirabel in Encanto, we are all valued and important in God’s family, and we must use those gifts, here in this particular church, and in the broader church, because God created us with a purpose that only we can do, that we must do, we can’t sit on the sidelines.

 

So this is where we are at entering into this last week of preparation, and of course the Church has given us another reading talking about spiritual gifts and how the point of them all is to increase our love, love for God and love for one another.  We will see these Gifts of the Holy Spirit on display throughout the mission, and we will specifically pray for an outpouring of them on Tuesday night.

 

But I want to focus more on the healing aspect of this Mission for a moment.  It seems like lots of people are sick right now, with weird things, and there have been lots of younger people dying recently, insurance companies are pointing this out, noting that there has been a 40% uptick in deaths in the age group from 18 to 64 from pre-covid numbers.  

 

And to me, it just seems like this is a result of living in fear for the last two years.  The amount of fear and anxiety and stress that we have all collectively been under is unprecedented, and I believe it is all negatively affecting our physical health.

 

I just don’t think we can comprehend how our physical, emotional and spiritual health are really tied together, but they really are, and this has been a revelation for me, especially this year as I have seen people healed physically. 

 

About 3 years ago Sr. Miriam James told this to me and a group of baby priests from across the state of Iowa, but I really didn’t believe her until I saw it for myself, that our physical and emotional health are connected to our spiritual health.

 

You know we take vitamins and we work out, trying to stay healthy, and when we get sick, we just immediately turn to doctors or medicine.  And don’t hear what I am not saying, these are of course good and appropriate, however, I believe many people, most of us, we neglect the spiritual aspect of our lives to the detriment of our physical and emotional health.

 

They are really all connected, and this is why we see healings in all of these areas when we pray over people, when we forgive and repent and receive prayer, we see physical and emotional healings.  

 

Going to the mission is to your spiritual health what going to the doctor is for your physical health, but working on your spiritual health can also impact your physical health. This mission is a jumpstart. We need to keep our spiritual lives healthy, through coming to Mass, receiving the sacraments regularly, and spending time in prayer.

 

We cannot afford to neglect our spiritual health for as much is coming at us these days. And often we think of Jesus as our Savior only at the end of our lives because of what He did for us on the cross, but what we need to know is that this word “save” also means to “heal,” so it’s not just at the end, it is right now!  

 

The “Doctor of our Soul,” Jesus Christ, wants to save us, to heal us, here and now, He is the one that does the healing through human hands.

 

Our Parish Mission focused on healing and renewal in the Holy Spirit might seem unusual to some people, but I believe it is what our Church needs right now, and what our world needs right now, to be healed from our fear and anxiety and stress, and to know of God’s great love for us.  It’s really nothing new, it’s just new to many of us, myself included.

 

Physical healings and manifestations of the Holy Spirit have been happening since the time of Jesus.  Catholic speaker Patrick Reis pointed out at that conference some great saints who had these spiritual gifts:

• Vincent Ferrer - a 14th Century saint that had the gift of healing, credited with healing 86,000 people in his life, and raising 29 people from the dead.
• Philip Neri - everyday he would pray for more spiritual gifts, he received a heart on fire for God, the gift of joy, etc.  After he died they found his enlarged heart/broken ribs that verified the mystical experience he had.
• Catherine of Siena - as a lay woman she was called to Deliverance Ministry with the gift of Discernment of Spirits. Her gift of prophecy convinced the Pope in Avignon to return the papacy to Rome.

 

These are just a few examples, but these gifts of the Holy Spirit have always been for the benefit of God’s holy people, for our benefit, primarily of knowing God’s love for us.  

I know that I’ve emphasized physical healings a lot over this last year, but look at how important physical healings were in the Gospels. They were an enormous part of Jesus’s ministry. But what always came after those healings? “Go, and sin no more.” 

 

Jesus didn’t heal for healing’s sake. Jesus worked wonders in order that we might believe. I didn’t invite Fr. Bramlage back because the mission was popular. I wanted to open our parish up again to the possibility of these healing wonders in order that we might believe. 

 

Jesus Christ came, lived, and died for us primarily to heal our relationship with God the Father. Great and powerful wonders mean nothing if they don’t lead us into a deeper relationship with Jesus, into repentance, into forgiveness, and into that spiritual healing and well being which is the greater good.

I can’t wait for you all to experience these gifts at the Parish Mission, I just ask you to be open to how the Spirit will work in your life.  God loves you and wants you to be convinced of that beyond a doubt.