Not Every Healing is a Miracle

I’ve been giving a great deal of attention to suffering lately in my sermons and blog posts. I have also referenced miracles within the context of suffering and healing. It occurred to me today, that many of us use the terms “healed” and “miracle” interchangeably. Just because we have been healed from an illness, doesn’t mean we have experienced a miracle.

Webster’s Dictionary defines “miracle” as

1. A wonder or wonderful thing.
2. An event or effect contrary to the established constitution and course of things, or a deviation from the known laws of nature; a supernatural event, or one transcending the ordinary laws by which the universe is governed.

I like that the dictionary implies, or least I infer, that there is a difference between a wonder and an event that deviates from the known laws of nature. Sometimes, we just don’t understand it, but that doesn’t make it a miracle in the “God-sense” of the word. I have heard others suggest that miracles DO conform to the natural laws – God’s laws. I like this vantage point.

So that brings me to the point I want to make today. With the countless advances in medicine, including pharmacology and technology, human beings are being healed by many ailments that just twenty-five years ago, would have required a “miracle” by God. And yet, today the blind can see, the lame can walk, the deaf can hear. Are these miracles or a testimony to modern medicine?

That doesn’t mean I believe God has no hand in healing. I believe He does. It is His Holy Spirit that whispers into the hearts of researchers who discover the newest cure. It is His Holy Spirit that opens the eyes of the observer to see the chemical reaction take place. It is His Angels who guide the hands of the surgeon during organ transplants. But I would not call these healings, miracles.

An oncologist once said to a priest-friend of mine, “We are lucky to save 1 out of every 10 cancer patients we see.” He was quite proud of his accomplishments against such a horrible disease. My friend responded, “I have news for you. You haven’t saved ANY. They all still died, didn’t they?”

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in miracles, and wanting a miracles, and feeling upset when we didn’t get a miracle, that we easily forget we are going to die and THEN God will accomplish the REAL miracle...He will raise us from the dead to live eternally with Him in Heaven. In the meantime, let’s be thankful for the healing He does allow so that we have time to repent. Since we will all die, we should remember the healing we do receive is granted to us as a gift so that we can repent.

Priestly prayer for the sick in the hospital

O Lord Almighty, the Healer of our souls and bodies, You who put down and raise up, Who chastise and heal also; do You now, in Your great mercy, visit our brother(sister) who is sick. Stretch forth Your hand that is full of healing and health, and get him(her) up from the bed of pain, and cure him(her) of this illness. Put away from him(her) the spirit of disease and of every malady, pain and fever to which he(she) is bound; and if he(she) has sins and transgressions, grant to him(her) remission and forgiveness, in that You love mankind; yes Lord my God, pity Your creation, through the compassions of Your Only begotten Son, together with Your All-Holy, Good and Life-Giving Spirit, with Whom You are blessed, both now and ever, and to the ages of ages.