Ministry to the Sick

Bishop Eric Menees

Dear brothers and sisters, I pray that this Bishop’s Note finds you healthy and blessed.  Last week in the Bishop’s Note we examined the Introduction to the Healing Rites. The first of those healing rites is reconciliation. However, having examined this rite last Lent, today I’d like to move on to the Ministry to the Sick. As I write this note, 220,000 of our fellow citizens have lost their lives to a virus known as the coronavirus or COVID-19. While it is always appropriate to speak about ministry to the sick, somehow it seems especially appropriate at this exact time. 

Of course, a central sign of the presence of the Kingdom of God in the first century was the healing that our Lord did, think of blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46), the paralytic (Luke 5:17), or the centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1). 

However, that witness to the presence of the Kingdom of God did not completely end with the Ascension of Jesus, but returned with the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Just think of Peter healing the lame man (Acts 3:1), Paul being healed by Ananias (Acts 9:17), or Paul’s healing of Eutychus (Acts 20:10). 

Just as people were healed in the first century people continue to be healed in the twenty first century. Each of these healings were performed by men and women of faith through the laying on of hands in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Note that the officiant begins by calling out to the Lord, who offered himself on the cross, to be present in power to heal.  

Then the priest or other appointed person anoints the forehead of the ill person in the name of our Triune God asking him to heal the individual physically, emotionally, and spiritually. 

Next week we’ll examine the second part of this short and powerful Rite of Healing.

Blessings