NTRODUCTION
Inner healing is a vital process that seeks the restoration of well-being in all aspects of a person's life: physical, mental, and emotional. The World Health Organization (WHO) and reputable health agencies like the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in the United States recognize the importance of addressing mental health comprehensively, which includes acknowledging the role of emotional and psychological well-being, often referred to as inner healing. As James S. Larson would say: The World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being" now is conventional wisdom. Health is no longer defined simply in physical terms, as the absence of disease or disability, but now includes mental and social dimensions. I would like to explore first in this exposition how the search for inner healing and the interconnection between body, mind and emotions in this process originated. We will present a concrete case, examine the essential guide for practitioners in this field, and discuss why inner healing is so essential in today's world. Additionally, we will explore Trauma and how the Church, Spirituality, the Christian Faith tries to provide solutions in this context.
The Origin of the Search for Inner Healing
The notion of inner healing has deep roots in human history. From the spiritual practices of ancient civilizations to modern therapies, humans have sought to alleviate emotional and spiritual suffering. Ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Hindu philosophies promoted introspection and self-reflection as means to inner healing. Over time, these ideas evolved and became integrated into many religions and spiritual traditions. However, in recent decades, a more scientific approach has emerged that explores how emotions, and the mind can physically affect the body. Psychology, neuroscience, and integrative medicine have contributed to the development of this approach, showing that emotions and thoughts can play a role in medical conditions such as chronic stress or autoimmune diseases.
The Connection between the Body, Mind and Emotions
The relationship between the body, mind and emotions is fundamental in inner healing. We cannot consider these aspects separately, as they are intricately connected. For example, chronic emotional stress can manifest in physical problems, such as heart disease or gastrointestinal disorders. Likewise, a prolonged physical illness can have a significant impact on a person's mental and emotional health. We’ll talk more about that later. Inner healing is based on the understanding that the body, mind and emotions are deeply interconnected. When a patient experiences physical pain or illness, it is crucial to explore not only the physical symptoms, but also the underlying emotional and psychological causes. This connection means that simply taking pills to treat physical symptoms is not always enough, as the roots of the problem may persist. You cannot medicate depression, fear or guilt!
A holistic approach to inner healing seeks to address these interconnected aspects to achieve lasting results. This means recognizing that there is no "magic pill" that can solve all problems, but that comprehensive care is needed.
The Case Amy and her Journey towards Inner Healing
Amy, a 37-year-old woman, suffered a serious car accident that left her with physical disabilities and deep emotional scars. Despite surgery and physical therapy, she continued to experience physical and emotional pain. She began seeking help and embarked on a journey of inner healing. During her healing process, Amy participated in talk therapy to address emotional trauma and learn strategies to deal with her physical pain. She also embarked on a comprehensive wellness program that included physical exercises, relaxation techniques and meditation. She also joined a church group where she was led into the Word of God and participated in their spiritual and prayer sessions as well as their social /community functions. As her mind and her body healed, Amy experienced a significant improvement in her quality of life.
Professional Guide to Helping Patient’s heal
By Professionals here I mean Clinically trained Chaplains and Counsellors, Mental Health Professionals, Clinical Psychologists and Psychiatrist. An inner healing technician must be well trained and sensitive to the unique needs of each patient. The essential guide involves:
Comprehensive Evaluation: Understand the patient's medical, emotional, and spiritual history to determine a personalized treatment plan.
Holistic Approach: Recognize the interconnection between the body, mind and emotions and address them in a balanced way.
Complementary Therapies: Use a variety of therapeutic approaches, such as talk therapy, physical therapy, Motivational theory/Therapy and wellness practices, as needed.
Education and Empowerment: Empower patients to actively participate in their healing process and make informed decisions about their health.
Ongoing Follow-Up: Maintain open communication and follow-up with the patient to evaluate progress and make adjustments as necessary.
Why Inner Healing is Necessary in Today's World
In a world characterized by stress, anxiety and disconnection, inner healing has become essential. Many face trauma, chronic illness, broken relationships, loss of loved ones, loss or lack of gainful employment, abuses and other emotional challenges that require comprehensive care. These emotional challenges might not be seen physically but they are also felt. Inner healing offers a path to complete recovery and quality of life. Thus, it offers a comprehensive approach to addressing these issues. It addresses the underlying causes of disease and promotes greater emotional and physical well-being.
Mental health disorders are prevalent worldwide, affecting millions of individuals. The exact number of people with mental health challenges can vary by region and time, but it's a significant global health concern. According to the American Psychological Association, made up of over 146,000 members as well as the American Academy of Paediatrics, 1 in every 5 adults and 1 in every 4 children in the United States have mental health issues. Events like the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated mental health challenges due to increased stress, anxiety, and isolation. Addressing mental health in children and adolescents is crucial, as early intervention can prevent long-term issues. High rates of suicide are a tragic consequence of untreated mental health conditions. Suicide is currently the 2nd highest cause of death in people between ages 10-35 in the United States. Mental health disparities exist, with marginalized and vulnerable populations often experiencing higher rates of mental health challenges and less access to care. Improving crisis response through inner healing and emergency mental health services is essential to support individuals in immediate distress.
TRAUMA and its Long Term or Lasting Effects on the Individual
First off, I would like to define trauma and then the difference between using it as a badge or as a living wound which a lot of people do versus what is really trauma addressing it and not just sweeping it under the rug. It is possible to identify with your trauma and make that into your personality, make that into your identification, which means that you're stuck in something that happened in the past and you can't move beyond it. With this view trauma can get a bad rap. On the other hand, in our contemporary culture, we're not looking at trauma nearly enough and its ramifications. So, what is trauma? This is to the point that there is Scientific research that isn’t even vaguely controversial but shows the relation between trauma and physical and mental illness to the point that a British psychologist, member of the British Academy, Richard Bentel, said that the evidence, for example linking childhood adversity to trauma and to adult mental health conditions is as clear as the evidence linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer. Unfortunately, it is a scientific fact that the average medical student never hears a single lecture on trauma, which is almost unbelievable, but they don't. That means they don't know what they're looking at most times except mere conjectures in their brief course in psychiatry while in medical college.
So, what is trauma? Trauma literally comes from the Greek word for wound or wounding. Trauma is a psychological wound. Trauma is not what happens to you. It is what happens inside you. It is not the hit that you get. It is the concussion. Trauma is the wound that happens inside you. For an example a renowned Trauma expert and medical Doctor, Gabor Mate talks in one of his books about how when he was 11 months of age he was given to a complete stranger in the streets of Budapest by his mother and he didn't see her for six weeks. The trauma, he said, “is not that I was given to a stranger, she did that to save my life as a Jew with Jews living under the Nazis. That was the only way she could keep me alive.” But the trauma is the wound or scar which he made it to mean in himself which was the only thing that an infant can make it mean, that I'm not lovable and I'm being abandoned and rejected. Now that could have been an adaptive method of dealing with it then, but it could show up 70 years later when something touches it. This is called a trigger or enactment.
The characteristics of a wound basically are twofold one is when you are very sensitive when something touches or reminds you of that wound. This is when you are triggered by the action, words or attitude of another. Mind you, being triggered isn’t a bad thing. It is what or how you manage the trigger. Being triggered is a good thing because it means you get to examine yourself and what is happening inside. Usually, the trigger in a gun or explosive is only a very small part of the mechanism. For the trigger to do its work there has to be explosive material inside you. Every time you get triggered you get an opportunity to examine what explosive charge is inside of you. It shows that you are still carrying the wounds from childhood that has just been triggered. The other aspect of a wound is that it scars over and scar tissue is protective, it's not live. It doesn't have growth capacity. People who are traumatized get stuck at certain levels of emotional development. Scar tissue has no nerve endings in it hence you don’t feel anything underneath the scar. This means that to the extent people are traumatized that is how disconnected they are from their bodies. They are disconnected from their feelings, which is not a bad thing.
For example, a child who is being abused can't run away. The healthy response is to fight back or to run away. But because the child can't run away the protective response is to disconnect from yourself. This drama, in a sense, represents the organisms automatic defense mechanism. But then there’s a price to pay for that disconnection. That disconnection from that feeling the child is escaping from creates all kinds of problems later on in life, mental and physical illness. When the pain gets too much and you can't bear it, you have no way of dealing with it as a child, the next thing is to get into addictions to dull the torture of the pain. Being disconnected from your feelings is the biggest impact of trauma, which means that now you're no longer leading an authentic life. And sadly, so few are committed to being authentic. This is the challenge. How many of you have had the experience of having a strong gut feeling about something but ignored it and then being sorry afterwards that you ignored your gut feeling?
I believe that most of you have felt such. This is the story of your childhood because you've never met a one-day old baby that was disconnected from the good feelings they have. What disconnects us from a good feelings is the traumatic experience. Now, I define, or at least I describe trauma as having two major categories. There is the big T trauma and the small T trauma. The big T trauma is when terrible things happen to a child such as sexual abuse, separation from a mother as an infant, poverty, racism, emotional abuse or neglect, parent dying, the pain of being addicted or the pain of being mentally ill, or a rancorous divorce that the child has to live through, violence in the family, mentally ill parent, etc. These are the big T trauma even that leave a deep psychological wound that affects our later behavior which are often maladaptive and cause stress affecting the nervous system. There’s another way you can hurt people. This is by doing bad things to them or by not meeting their needs.
Human children have evolved with specific needs. They're not just a blank slate on which you can write anything you want. They have certain emotional needs. As adults we have certain emotional needs for the healthy development of the human child, certain conditions have to be met to enable the child to develop healthily. For example, an attachment relationship with the parents. A child needs to feel absolutely secure, absolutely safe, which means that the child shouldn't have to work to make their relationship work. They shouldn't have to be pretty compliant, smart or any of that stuff. They just have to exist. That's the need of the child. Children have to be given the freedom to experience all their emotions. Their and our brains are wired for emotions. Our emotional brain develops long before our intellectual brain which is the end of the individual development of the human infant. The emotional brain develops before the intellectual brain. The emotional brain is the scaffolding for the intellectual brain. When the scaffolding is good the intellect will serve the proper purposes. When the scaffolding is not good the intellect can go rogue and be very brilliant and create a lot of evil.
One of the essential needs of children is to be able to experience all their emotions which we share with all other mammals by the way, which include caring or love, fear, panic, grief, playfulness, curiosity, rage, anger. Most parenting advise moms and dads get is that there are acceptable emotions and unacceptable emotions. That certain feelings or emotions must not be encouraged in a child or should be shamed or rebuked for feeling so. They should be discouraged and even punished when they express such feelings. Unfortunately, when you do that, you are forcing the child to make a terrible decision. If my feeling cannot be accepted, I won't have the attachment relationship. I will lose the attention and love of my parents. On the other hand, to have the attachment relationship I have to suppress aspects of myself. This is where most learned to fuse with others in their family of origin and have no mind of their own, or they become distant and never talk or care about members of their family. It is natural to feel safe or want to feel safe in your family of origin, to feel belonging. Being isolated is no good. It becomes a lifelong struggle to get back to who we actually are.
John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth in 1991 formulated the Attachment theory. When children have a healthy childhood attachment to parents or older siblings, or care givers they will likely develop a healthy self-worth and self-confidence. The opposite is true when there is neglect, lack of attention, etc. This is the cause of all the negative and antisocial activities and behaviors we see in society, why relationships hurt or don’t work. This is why there is rape, armed robbery, looting, killings, war, terrible marriages, etc. Family Systems Theory addresses this aspect of attachment. According to Murray Bowen, family systems theory is a theory of human behavior that defines the family unit as a complex social system in which members interact to influence each other’s behavior. Family members interconnect, making it appropriate to view the system as a whole rather than as individual elements. Where there was acceptance of differences and individuation, you’ll see harmony and love in the children and in their later adult life you’ll see the warm bond they share. But where you weren’t allowed to own your feelings or have a voice or you felt neglected and never given attention then you see human beings at their vicious worst in adulthood, a certain cold cordiality or indifference that shows no emotional attachments nor concern for each other. The only time they ask after each other or participate in a common activity is maybe when the parents die. Buit even then you’ll notice that they have no unity in the family. This is called dysfunctionality. It all begins from childhood with so many abuses and deprivations. Each child struggles to survive on their own and so might choose to not care later for their siblings that are suffering even when they are living in affluence. This is so very common in Nigeria and other African countries as well as in Europe and America.
In conclusion then trauma is this wound that you sustained either because terrible things happened that shouldn't have happened to you. And it happens to a lot of kids, or because the good things that should have happened did not happen because their parents didn't love them or they didn't do their best, and because we live in a culture that makes it so difficult to be a good parent. We are preoccupied with work or too busy, unprepared and unavailable for the work of parenting.
So how do we treat it? This is the work of inner or holistic healing.
We're so much as a society in the infancy stages of even beginning to really understand this which I am trying to explain. Now, there is this tragic case right now Harvey Weinstein who clearly had an addiction to sexual predation. And of course, there's all kinds of justified outrage at the system that allowed and enabled him to carry on for so many decades. And people are angry with him, which is totally understandable but if he came to me for counseling I would not begin with any kind of a judgment. That would be bad. He already knows that. I would rather ask him what did it do for you? What did you get from it that was missing from your life and what was missing from your life? How did you lose it? What happened to you? In other words whatever else you do, first of all you have to accept these people as they are and not judge them and understand that they were slaves to something inside them that seemed to give them some satisfaction or gratification. And why indulging in it they make themselves slaves.
Another thing to note is that something happened to create that compulsion and that something that happened that created the compulsion was rooted in pain. In other words you have to treat them with compassion and you have to actually get to the core trauma rather than just dealing with the behavior and the problem with all the many programs. It is sad that in most places where people go to get treatment or counseling rarely do they deal with the trauma. And even in the AA 12 step program it rarely deals with the trauma. The same in most churches and denominations. It is like the medical profession and religions are traumaphobic. The evidence flies in our faces. All of society and families/individuals are acting from Trauma. The manifestations of trauma which show up in the culture, from politics to every other field is pretty obvious. People don’t like to be told they are acting from or in the stronghold of trauma. These are the strongholds of Satan telling us lies like he told Eve, that we ARE NOT what we are. That we are not complete in ourselves. That we need someone or external things to give us a sense of self-worth, power, sex, titles, children, spouse, wealth, job, etc.
Certain traumas are passed from one generation to another based on the behavior of parents and grandparents. The result is the addictions we see. And remember Addictions are things we do that give us a sense of security, pleasure or elation and which in the long run have a very bad consequence. How we get affected by our parents’ behavior can be explained by the science of epigenetics. There is an actual biological change when something is repeatedly done, and it becomes a pattern. Epi means on top. Epigenetics then means on top of the genetics. It teaches that genes are turned on and off by the environment and that this happens early in life so that even two people with the same genes if they have different experiences or grew up in different environments, they'll have different outcomes or behaviors. Because in one case the gene was turned off, in the other it was turned on. So, traumas are passed on both biologically and in the pain that it induces in the child. When you look at the circuits in the brain that are affected by anxiety or ADHD or addiction or any other mental health problem these circuits develop an interaction with the environment. The human brain is the least mature of any mammal. The horse can run on the first day of life. We humans can't do that for a year and a half, and that's because we were born with large heads comparatively speaking already at birth. The head is the largest part of the body, and the human female has a relatively narrow pelvis compared to a horse because we have to walk on two legs. So narrow pelvis with large head we have to get out of the womb prematurely, so to say, and that means that most of our brain development 80 to 90% of it occurs after birth and not before and very much affected by the emotional environment so that these are not just behavioral problems, they become physiological problems. In summary it is true that our gene function is also affected by trauma multigenerationally such that our traumatized grandparents’ genes can still affect the genetic functioning of us the grandchildren.
Having said all that the Goodnews is that the brain can develop new circuits even later on in life. This is called neuroplasticity. Thank God for this possibility because it means that when we begin to wire and fire new circuits in our brain by our thought pattern we will rewire and create new neural pathways. This is where healing begins to take place after recognizing the source of our emotional and psychological hang up or addictions, feelings of inadequacy, ‘I am not good enough’, self-doubt, lack of confidence, cowardice masked as piety and an apathetic or aloof spirit. These are the emotional strongholds that religions like Buddhism and Christianity tend to deal with. I subscribe to the Christian way of liberation from such strongholds because I am of the Christian Tradition. But I believe every religion has such teachings.
Christianity helps us recover what Satan had taken from us. That we aren’t or aren’t sufficient in ourselves. That there is something lacking in us, the source of our self-doubt and all the consequent ill-attitudes and behaviors. When we talk about recovery what does it mean to recover something? What do you do when recover something? It means you get it back. Christianity proposes a change in mindset, a change in the pattern of our thinking that the devil uses to keep us chained and unfree to live and manifest the power and authority that God gave Adam at the beginning in Genesis 1:26-28 to Multiply, Expand and Take Authority over everything he created: “Be fruitful and multiply and be masters of the birds of the air, the fishes of the sea and all creeping creatures. By my trauma experiences in childhood and early adolescence I lost myself but, as I recover my identity in God and begin to change my pattern of thinking I get reconnected with my authentic self. In our recovery we begin to experience a reconnection with our original self as God made us. This is the work of inner healing as we are set free and liberated.
Christian Teaching for Inner Healing: The Healing Power of ENCOUNTER
Encounter in the Christian spiritual sense means to experience intimacy with God for real and grow in Awareness of his presence and see his signs and wonders manifest as it did in the early Church through us in our environment and around us. I believe that the Christian message has ALL that humans NEED. It answers Man and Woman’s deepest questions and caters to ensuring they attain their deepest yearnings and highest aspirations.
The Christian gospel proposes that God came to heal and save us from the depths of despair, depression, and abuse. Hence it is called the Good news. You cannot but begin to heal as you grow into what Scripture says about you and the promises of God in the Bible for you. These are the truths Satan is hiding from you and doesn’t want you to know, hence he keeps you in ignorance of God’s Word that will reveal to you your true or authentic identity. In the Catholic faith you will understand that all you will ever need is in God’s Word and in the Church’s Eucharistic Liturgy. In Holy Communion and in the tabernacle is Jesus, his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Heaven and earth meet at Mass. All of time and eternity are given meaning in what is being enacted on the altar. And as you connect deeply with Christ in the Sacraments of reconciliation and Holy Communion your healing takes place. All mental and emotional issues begin to resolve thus in the context of a believing and witnessing community.
Yes, healing takes place as you begin to grow in your understanding of passages like Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, I consecrated you. "You created my inmost self, knit me together in my mother's womb, my being held no secrets from you, when I was being formed in secret, textured in the depths of the earth. Your eyes could see my embryo. In your book, all my days were inscribed, every one that was fixed is there" (Psalms 139:13,15-16). This means that your life is not an accident and that you were known by God before he placed you in your mother’s womb. We see this in Ephesians 1:4: “He chose us before the foundation of the world. How special and primary you are! Your identity as God’s chosen is the best knowledge that you can ever have as it builds self-worth and confidence. Proverbs 19:21: “A man has many plans in his heart but only the purpose of God will remain.” This makes clear that there is a purpose to our lives. We are here for a higher purpose, and it is our task to unravel it as our lives unfold as we have been equipped with whatever we need to accomplish that purpose. Ephesians 2:10 buttresses this point when it says: “You were created and designated for a good purpose for which God made you” and your destiny is to reign with Christ over the earth: Ephesians 2: 5-6 says “We have been raised with Christ and are seated with him above principalities and powers to rule the earth. Revelations 5:10 states clearly that God has made us a line of priests to reign with our God on earth. As stated in Genesis 1:26-28 you are to have dominion over the earth by being a solution to one of life’s problems and not being merely an insignificant cog in the wheel of humanity which leaves you seeking creature comforts and trying to drown your sense of meaninglessness in destructive addictions. What uplifting truth that you are part of a great plan, and you are a citizens of the Ultimate Kingdom that will outlast all empires and kingdoms humans make.
How does a passage like this make you feel? “We are coheirs with Christ…” (Ephesians 1:13). As stated in Revelations 5:10 cited above Dominion is your destiny and you are the one to bring about the kingdom of God as Christ taught in the Our Father, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9-13). What does baptism confer on us? That the Spirit of God is in you to enable you enter and possess your glory as God’s sons or daughter sent to earth but already reigning from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). It is your duty to never lose this. I believe this will change that depressive outlook to life, all that negativity and self-doubt and enable you to be even more committed to getting out of your situation that suffocates or destroys your happiness, which is the frightening opposite, for the absence of God’s Spirit means the Evil Spirit takes over for Spirits need a body to operate on earth. Yes, this is what baptism is about, that just as Christ was made Priest, Prophet and King so are you for the task of continuing the conquest of evil and illumining the world with the light of the glory of God.
This is clear in Scriptures: “The heavens are the Lord’s, but the earth he has given to the sons of men (Psalm 115:16). “Ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance” (Psalm 2:8). “How great is your name O Lord our God through all the earth. When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon, and the stars which you arranged, what is man that keep him in mind, mortal man that you care for him. Yet you have made him little less than a God. With glory and honor you crowned him. Gave him power over the works of your hand. Put all things under his feet” (Psalm 8). “In all truth I tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). “Do not live in fear little flock. It has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). These passages show the Power that God has given to us humans. Yes, it pleases Jesus to work through us in the world. Once we understand these truth, like Televisions in homes or restaurants broadcasting things we don’t see in the waves around us but relayed from elsewhere so we too will begin to relay divine healing and progress wherever we are. The Spirit of God in you by virtue of your baptism will take over and you will be unstoppable for thus destiny beckons. You would have become whole (complete, perfect) as Your heavenly Father is whole (Matthew 5:48).
American and European societies seem to encourage children to a false sense of autonomy when in truth they are nothing without that connection to their source if they’re going to live and find true happiness. By the same vein, many societies in Africa, especially in the West, South, East and Central Africa tend to discourage and shut children from thinking they are anything and of no value. This makes them become trapped in emotional strongholds of self-doubt, low self-worth/esteem, self-hate, self-sabotaging beliefs, which manifest in the continent in negativity, cynicism, anger, viciousness, wickedness, malice, outright hatred and evil meted out to one another and no regard for human life or the dignity of the human person. The evil the continent has suffered is enormous, from tribal times to the slave trade era, from colonialism and neocolonialism to contemporary economic misery and beggary. These are all contrary to the light of the gospel.
In a place where people know and understand who they are they will and cannot but reincarnate the garden of Eden. Not the many blood fields, human abattoirs, decimation, and evil humans have suffered since the dawn of time. My heart bleeds at the sight and memory of all these as I have experienced or read in books. Women and children, boys and girls, men and women, many have suffered immeasurably and been totally deprived by Satan of their birthright, and many till today are still trapped in that stronghold of selfishness, self-absorption, greed, lust, pride, a covetous spirit, envy, anger and distaste or apathy for God. How many are suffering and are victims of such mindsets and cultures steeped in darkness and enslaving them more in false or erroneous beliefs and worldviews. No, we can’t continue like this! Like Peter told the early Christians, “You are a Chosen Race, a Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation, a People for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).
In conclusion, inner healing begins to take place as you know and discover your true Identity and the Power and Authority you bear, and that this Authority comes with responsibility. You will begin to understand that the Name of Jesus carries Power and that the Holy Communion you receive is Jesus confirming his presence in your life and reminding you that you are his hands and feet to bring hope to the world: “All Authority in heaven and earth has been given me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And behold, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time” (Matthew 28:18-20). It is my hopes that as we have listened to these words on inner healing, we may receive Christ’s commission… Rise up young man. Rise up young lady from your entrapment by the devil. Come to Him to heal you and soothe your wounds, your Trauma. Don’t hide them. It is why He sent His Son. As he heals you may you be filled with his Spirit again as he tells you in Matthew 10:7-8: “As you go, make this proclamation that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. You received without charge, give without charge.”
Again, in Mark 16;17-20 the commission is clear: “These are the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay hands on the sick who will recover.” In Luke 10:17-19 this mandate is also seen: The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you.” Do you hear that? In You lies Power, Not Fear. “God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of Power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). What is Power? What is Authority? Power is the ability to make something happen. Authority is the ability to exercise that power for a good purpose. Authority is the right to act on behalf of someone else. Authority places us in the position to do something, power enables us to do it. In the name of Jesus resides Power. In the Eucharist lies Power even more as it is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, God and Man and as attested in the Eucharistic miracles over the centuries. We can see them as assembled by Blessed Carlos Acutis.
Always remember your inheritance as coheir with Christ. “It is in him that we have received our inheritance, marked out beforehand as we were, under the plan of the One who guides all things as he decides by his own will, chosen to be, for the praise of his glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came. Now you too in him have heard the message of the truth and the gospel of your salvation and having put your trust in it you have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance, for the freedom of the people whom God has taken for his own, for the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:11-14). Never give that up for anything or anyone. Christ tells us: "Do not live in fear little flock, it has pleased your Father to give you the Kingdom" (Luke 12:32). Yes, "We have been given possession of an unshakeable inheritance" (Hebrews 12:28). "Then the King will say to those on his right hand, "Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world." (Matthew 25:34).
Finally, never forget that “he chose you from before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4). He says: "You are precious in my eyes. I will give up whole nations to save you" (Isaiah 43:4). Yes, you may be saying like Israel did that God had abandoned or forgotten them. But in Isaiah 49:15-16 God responds thus: “Does a mother forget her baby, or a woman the child in her womb? Yet even if these forget I will never forget you. I have carved you in the palm of my hands.”
Remember always this promise of God: “I shall restore the years the locust has eaten, the thief has stolen, the sinner has ruined” (Joel 2:25). Go on and live your life, fullness of health and wholeness as Christ said: “The thief comes only to steal, to kill and to destroy. But I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly” (Matthew 10:10). And as you seek him first as priority in your life living in right conduct may you receive the additions that he promised will be added unto you (Matthew 6:33).
“Remember your word to your servant, O Lord, by which you have given me hope. This is my comfort in distress, when my spirit is low, that your promise gives me life” (Ps 119 (118): 49-50).
May this Divine Teaching, O Lord, restore us in mind and body, that we may be coheirs in glory with Christ, to whose suffering we are united whenever we proclaim h
is Death in our own suffering and misfortunes. Amen.
