The greatest miracle is the Lord’s triumph over death. Every healing is a repetition of Pascha because every sickness is a path towards death in a way. Every healing is a second presence of Christ in the body of the sick. The Lord has summarized his message through the following: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind”.
However, the Lord used to put the miracle in the second rank behind the divine word. In this sense, when He sent His disciples to the world, He told them: “Preach the Gospel to all creation”. He even said: “these signs will accompany those who believe. And when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16: 15–18).
Two things are inseparable for the healer and the healed: Faith and the act of healing. This occurred a lot in the Gospel.
After resurrection, the disciples were healing; for example, Peter and John healing the crippled (Acts 3). We notice in the New Testament a continuation of Jesus’ work with the disciples. After their era, we noticed that the Church called some Saints “Miracle makers” such us Saints Nicolas and Spyridon for example. Our Church doesn’t state that every saint must make miracles after his death. The Lord gives that gift to some of them. This proves that we accept the effectiveness of resurrection.
Also in the Church there is a sacrament dedicated for healing called the “Anointing of the sick”. It is unfortunate that no one practices it in the Antiochian Church (Maybe because of its absence, the Church has decided to perform this sacrament, for the benefit of all, on Holy Wednesday).
In Christ’s thought, healing is a sign of the coming of the kingdom. Therefore, exaggerating pain was something with no real basis. As for the miracle or healing of an ordinary illness, we ask for the latter because we are afraid of being controlled by fear and also because, through health, we receive a sign of the kingdom.
In our Orthodox faith, we believe that what is called “the laws of nature” have come after the appearance of sin. For if God broke the law of nature He would take you back to the pre sin state.
In all cases, God is free and isn’t restricted by the laws of nature. He heals the blind in a way that medicine doesn’t recognize. He directly enters the journey of the life of the sick and lifts him from his sadness tenderly. Tenderness is what made Jesus heal the sick.
We never know why a person can heal and another one can’t. A priest says a prayer and another priest says the same prayer: A Person could be healed with the prayer of the first priest and couldn’t with the second. In all cases, the duty of the priest is to put his hand on the head of the sick.
However, praying isn’t limited to priests. A person committed to spiritual life can pray with a sick person or in front of him or could gather with some brothers to pray together.
The important thing is to console the sick and guide him through the words of Jesus and prepare him to endure his pain through the Savior’s words and reading the Gospel. This is what we should care about because a person that becomes healthy through the Lord’s word can become a great pious person.
The sick must accept his situation and submit his case to God that knows what benefits the sick person. In all cases, his prayers would always benefit him and will always lead to what is good whether this was visible or invisible.
Remember the words of the Lord: “I was sick and you visited me”. Christ dwells in the body of the sick that is lying on his bed. We should wake him up and let the sick embrace Him consciously when we mention Christ’s name or read His words or sing the chants of triumph. The sick awaits his resurrection.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “العجائب” –Raiati 19- 07.05.2006
