B. Isenbarger Healing, Jesus Christ, worship

The Night I Saw Jesus Healing

A couple weeks ago, some of my seminarian brothers and I made an evangelization mission trip to one of our local universities. Our purpose was quite simple – to provide an encounter with the ever-living and supremely loveable God revealed in Jesus Christ. Sure, it sounds like a tall order, but when we realize that the Blessed Trinity is always laboring to love us, it’s not that complex of an endeavor. 

At any rate, the culminating event of our time at the university was a Night of Healing led by some of our diocesan priests, accompanied by several talented musicians to lead us in songs of praise and worship. There were also several religious sisters in addition to the seminarians who served as intercessors for those seeking prayers for healing. The format of the evening was fairly straightforward. We would begin with a song, followed by a Gospel reading and homily, and then folks would line-up to receive prayer from the priests. While this was taking place, the musicians would lead us in song. I thought it all sounded pretty simple.

Now, during the days leading up to this event the seminarians had chatted with and prayed with nearly 300 students on campus. We had even accompanied a man back from total unbelief in Jesus to a profound encounter with the risen Lord which reignited his faith and led him to a peace he hadn’t experienced in a very long time. So, I had thought we had seen some extraordinary healing already taking place, but when the Night of Healing came, I was totally blown away. 

In that chapel, there were over a hundred people seeking the Lord’s healing touch. I don’t know the specifics, but I’m sure there were folks suffering from everything from various aches and pains, to anxiety and depression, to more serious illnesses and disease – not to mention the incessant spiritual maladies we all bring with us. While each of them came forward, the priests would lay hands upon them and simply invite the Holy Spirit to come upon them. In that time of prayer, God alone knows what took place in the hearts of His children. 

It was immediately after these people received prayer that I saw the greatest healing take place. I presumed after the time of prayer, most folks would move on with their evening and head back home. Instead, what happened? Most people stuck around for nearly two hours singing their praises and giving glory to God. For many, they truly worshiped God with a real sacrifice of praise. There were even a handful of people who stuck around for nearly five hours giving praise and thanks to God. It was in this that I saw the greatest healing taking place – the healing of the wounded and broken human heart. 

In fact, in this act of praise and worship, the primordial wound of our humanity was being healed. From the Fall of our first parents until our own time, the greatest wound in the human heart is to doubt God’s goodness and love for His creation. We doubt God as loving Father. We doubt His faithfulness to His promises. It is precisely in this that humanity was tempted to sin in the first place. Nonetheless, in the very act of praise and worship (through the grace of God, of course) the human heart is able to firmly declare the goodness of God in Himself and His steadfast love for humanity. To put it simply, praise and worship says “God is God, I am not. He is faithful and true, even when I am not. He is loving and merciful, even when I cannot forgive.” In a word, praise and worship heals the human heart because it restores us to a proper relationship to the God who fully reveals Himself in Jesus Christ – transcendent and immanent, God and man, crucified and risen. 

All of this really came to a climax when I went to Mass on the following Sunday. In the Gospel (Luke 17:11-19), we heard Jesus healing the ten lepers, sending them to the priests, and then one returning to Jesus to give thanks to God. At first glance, it seems like a nice story of Jesus healing ten sick people – perhaps what I was first looking to see at the Night of Healing. 

But what happens next? Jesus sends them to the priests. Why? So that they could be once again declared clean so that they could resume public worship – to give glory to God; that is, so they could be restored to proper relationship to God. Then the lone foreigner, a Samaritan, returns to Jesus to give thanks to God. Jesus replies: “Your faith has saved you.” Another word for “saved” here could also be translated as “healed.” Thus, what was it that healed the Samaritan leper and regained for him the ability to worship? His faith in God’s goodness and the faithfulness displayed by Jesus. His only response, in turn, was praise and thanksgiving. 

While I may not have seen lepers healed before my eyes during the Night of Healing (though I’m sure some physical healing took place), I certainly witnessed faith being restored by Christ so that broken hearts could once again sing praise in order to worship the all good God.

For that, I give my own praise and thanksgiving.

Jesus, you are so good.  

B. Isenbarger Healing, Lent

The Inoculation of Sin

I’m a very sick man. In fact, I knock daily on death’s door. You see, I inherited it from my parents, and it has been in the family tree ever since. My parents were told they would receive greater knowledge of good and evil and be like God if they ate fruit from a certain tree. But in fact, they only became self-absorbed and shameful human beings. And so it is for me. I am nothing else than a sick and sinful man – and it’s killing me.

But I also have a great Doctor – the best in fact. He chose his own Tree in his own garden and was able to graft its fruit onto that tree which infected my parents. As a result, that once fatal decision of my parents in the garden has actually lost its sting, and my Doctor has even ensured a surplus of his medicine to keep me from my final death.

Not only this, but my Doctor even used this sickness of sin to inoculate me from myself. Because all of us have been infected by this original sin, all of us are in the same condition – filled with sin and deserving of death.  And it is precisely this realization that is the first step to growing in holiness.

I once was at a retreat led by an old Benedictine monk, and he made the following quip: “The first step to holiness is recognizing the following: ‘I’m an ass. And you’re an ass. In that order’.” 

In other words, once we recognize our own sinfulness and selfishness, it doesn’t take too long to see the same in one another. But this is precisely the point in which the beauty of the Gospel and the tenderness of Christ breaks into the scene. None of us, so entrenched in sin, are entitled to anything except eternal death. Yet, in spite of all of this, Jesus Christ enters directly into our own misery in order not only to redeem it, but to actually make it a point of communion. 

So – when I look at the rest of my fellow sinners – from the worst terrorists to that annoying guy sitting next to me in class, I realize they are infected with the same disease that affects me – sin. While the effects of sin present in others often make me want to run the other way – Christ actually does just the opposite – he uses it as an entry point to bind up our broken humanity.

In this way, instead of sin being the poison of the great Divider (Satan) who seeks to isolate and shame, the healing remedy of Christ can transform it into a place of encounter both with him and with one another. 

In fact, isn’t this the mystery which we celebrate at every Mass. The result of our sin – the crucifixion of the Son of God – is re-presented to all of us. And in so doing, Christ enters directly into the abyss of our sinfulness, not only to redeem it, but also to bring us into communion with Himself and one another. 

It’s no wonder St. Ignatius of Antioch calls the Eucharist the “medicine of immortality.”

I happen to call it the inoculation of sin.

B. Isenbarger fraternity, Healing, Holiness

“Bro! You’re bleeding from the jugular!

So, we’ve had this blog for about a month now, and you may be wondering who we all are. To start, we are much more than simply a group of guys who came together to write a few blog posts. This blog is merely an outlet for our fraternal life together and our life of prayer. Through it we hope to bring the light of Christ which we have experienced into a rather dark world. 

When this whole Fraternity began, we all seemed to have recognized our own brokenness and woundedness.  We also saw the brokenness and woundedness throughout the universal Church. Ultimately, this led us to a couple conclusions.

First, by ourselves we are totally insufficient. Because the priesthood is greater than one individual mortal, it cannot be undertaken as a personal project. It must be rooted in the one priesthood of Jesus Christ which is shared in by the priests of His Church. So, the more in which the fraternal life is shared among His priests – the more His priesthood is active in its fullness. 

Secondly, it is only in our brothers that we can clearly see our own woundedness and find healing. I think about soldiers in battle. Because of the idealism of youth, the adrenaline of action, and the scourge of pride, it is very possible for an individual to overlook his own mortal wounds. In a real way, soldiers need each other to say:

“Bro, you’re bleeding from the jugular!”

As can be imagined with a man bleeding from his neck, he is on the verge of losing consciousness, and already knocking on death’s door. His thinking becomes cloudy and his vision is severely impaired.

And so it is with us. 

Simply because of our mortal condition, all of us have experienced the most severe wound – that of original sin. It has caused us to be filled with our own egos, to choose pleasure over virtue, and even to refuse the mercy of God who seeks to bind up our bleeding jugulars.

But in the environment of true Christian fraternity, it becomes possible for a brother in Christ to bring us back to consciousness and our immediate need for the Divine Physician. When a community is established on the primacy of love and the mutual desire for integral wholeness, it becomes possible to point out the weaknesses and wounds of a brother – not for the purpose of condemnation and shame – but for the purpose of restoration and healing. 

So, who are we?

A few guys no different than the rest of humanity since Adam. Fortunately, we know there is a Physician who has never lost a patient who was faithful to His directives. Sometimes, though, we know the treatment options are painful and would rather be avoided. 

That’s why he gave us brothers – to keep us close to the Physician and on the treatment plan – even when we can’t see straight or are oblivious to the blood of our egoism gushing from our jugular. 

B. Isenbarger Healing, Jesus Christ, Reflection, The Faith

Jesus wants to heal you

Do you actually believe that? Or is that phrase simply some kind of pious sentiment. In the course of our lives we have all experienced suffering to one degree or another. However, when that suffering becomes prolonged and shows very few signs of progress, it is very easy to become disheartened and doubtful. In fact, it becomes very easy to doubt whether God actually does want to heal our broken bodies and wounded souls. Even the most stouthearted saints like Therese of Lisieux began to feel the overwhelming darkness and extraordinary feelings of isolation from God when enduring the trials of tuberculosis. 

So, let’s take a deeper look at the meaning of healing – does Jesus actually want to heal us?

To start – what does it mean to be healed? In the biblical world, to be healed means to be made whole or to be saved. In fact, the Gospel writers often use the same word to indicate both healing and saving. It is interesting to note, though, that not every one who encountered Christ in the Gospels was physically cured. However, Christ did desire for them all to be saved and in this way He truly did desire to heal all those encountered. Unfortunately, some did not recognize the healing presence of Christ in their midst. I think this is the case with most of us when it comes to the Lord’s healing presence. 

According to John Paul II, healing is the Healer, Jesus Christ.

In his encyclical Redemptoris missio, St. John Paul II pointed out the following:

“Jesus implies that the message of salvation is in fact himself: “Since the ‘Good News’ is Christ, there is an identity between the message and the messenger, between saying, doing and being”

In other words, the message of healing and salvation is not primarily found in the external act of having particular ailments cured of infirmity, but rather in the communion with the One who is salvation Himself. It is from this source alone that our bodies and souls can actually be restored to health.

To use a striking example, let’s recall the story of the ten lepers in the Gospel of Luke 17:11-19. Take a second to check it out and recall the story here. What happens in the story? Ten lepers, the most outcast of society and in extraordinary pain, approached the Lord and begged for His pity. I’m sure it’s a familiar place we have all been – looking for anything that will help and begging the Lord for mercy. What happens next is the incredible part of the story and exemplifies total healing. While all ten of the lepers were cured of their leprosy, only one was totally healed – the one who returned to Jesus, fell at His feet, and gave thanks. In response to this, what does Jesus say? “Your faith has saved you.” 

Here are the takeaways from this little pericope. 

First, all of us our broken and wounded in our humanity. We all need healing and saving. Like the ten lepers, there is no shame in begging the Lord for His mercy. In fact, this is absolutely what we should so. Along with this, though, we must be especially disposed to receive the Lord’s healing in whatever way He chooses to give it. While the nine lepers saw their physical maladies cured, only one saw the source of the healing and returned to be in communion with Christ. In this way, he was totally reintegrated in both body and soul. He received total healing – salvation.

And how did he receive this healing? Jesus said it was through his faith. Faith is the source of our healing. It gives us eyes to see the presence of Christ in our midst so that we can enter into communion with him. For it is in communion with Christ that we are led to the vision of the Father, which is heaven. To put it simply, without Christ there is no healing. With Him, there is always healing – for He is healing itself. 

In sum, there is no human condition which Christ does not want to heal. He truly desires to bring all woundedness and brokenness into communion with Himself. This is the very nature of His life and ministry. By nature of the Incarnation He brought our broken humanity to Himself, and through the mystery of His Cross He conquered death and brought about eternal life through His resurrection. In so doing, there is now no area of human life which is exempt from His presence – from His healing. The key, I believe, to receiving this healing is found in that great gift of faith which allows us to see Christ’s presence pervading every aspect of our lives. It draws us into communion with Him and will inevitably allow us to see the finality of our healing according to the eternal horizon of heaven. 

So does Jesus want to heal you?

Ask Him.

I believe He’s already in the process.