Q&A: SUFFERING versus HEALING?
Father James McMillan, SMM
DJ, Kansas City, Kansas
This is the short version of the longer question that appears below.
Question Submitted
In No. 154 of his True Devotion to Mary, St. Louis de Montfort tells us that Mary’s most faithful servants “receive from her the best graces and favors from heaven, which are crosses”. How do we reconcile the idea of the cross or suffering versus what the Charismatics stress about praying to be healed?
SUFFERING versus HEALING?
It is not only the Charismatics who pray for healing; we all do in times of sickness.
Christ Himself prayed that He would not have to accept His cross. But He added: “Not my will but thine be done.”
This is the Christian attitude toward suffering: we accept it in accordance with the will of God. Christ taught us that suffering is a necessary part of mankind’s redemption. He chose to redeem us by His agony and death on the cross and thereby pointed out to us the value of loving acceptance of the trials and difficulties that God permits in every human life.
When we unite our suffering with that of Christ, then our crosses become “the best graces and favors from heaven.”
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