Healing Presence


Thursday, July 13 0 St. Henry


€ Without cost you have received;
without cost you are to give.
Matthew 10:8

With these words, Jesus sends his disciples to towns and villages to announce the reign of God. He tells them that all that they are to bring with them is the gift given them: the very power of God to heal. We hear these same words thousands of years later and try to take them to heart in an age when diseases of all types are handled by science. What would Jesus tell us were he walking our streets this day?

Many a physician knows the need to be humanly present to those who are suffering. Healing is as sacramental as it is personal. I wonder if Jesus would give science its due, and then ask again that we go into the world to be present to those who are hurting-estranged from their humanity because so few have treated them humanly. No' amount of gold, silver, possessions or medicine can make one person present to another. Human presence, inspired by faith, is a gift which shines as bright as it is unencumbered.

Travel lightly this day. Allow the Lord to be present through you.

Fr. James Stephen Behrens, O.C.S.O.



Hosea 11:1-4, 8-9
Psalm 80:2-3, 15-16 * Matthew 10:7-15