Yesterday I was invited to a Facebook event “Fasting for Angela DiLaura’s Healing.” If you lived with me, you would not need much of an explanation as to why people would want Angela DiLaura to be healed. I had the grace to live in the same house as her last year. She is a wonderful person! (But if you need convincing, let her own words convince you.)
Can my own fasting make a real difference? I mean, really, how can the fact that I’ll be chowing on bread and water all day really affect a girl in a coma a couple hours away? Well, actually, I think it can make a difference.
The fact is, I believe in the Mystical Body of Christ. That means that each one of us is a member of His Body, so that if one of us is affected or hurt in some way, the whole Body is affected. (Much like when I have a headache or break a bone it affects the way that I live.)
But it wasn’t until yesterday that this reality hit home for me. Oftentimes, as a Catholic, I have fallen into a certain “voluntaristic” attitude. Meaning: I think that I can change God’s will through the power of my own will. Yesterday, as we held a prayer service for Angela, it hit me. When I am good with God, it helps to make others good with God. Just like when one particular part of my body is functioning normally, it helps the rest do the same.
So I invited the people praying for Angela to go to confession. One person’s spiritual “healing” could help bring about Angela’s physical healing.
And now today, I was invited to the Fast. It’s not the fact of my giving up something that makes the change in God. A true change occurs…a change in me. I show God that my desires are for something greater than my own comfort. I show Him through my actions, through my fasting, that I deeply desire this healing.
The healing may or may not occur, it could be dramatic or through the normal means of good health care. But all those “going” to this event are showing God one thing. I am willing to change so that someone else can get closer to you.
In that case, the healing has already begun.
