A miracle

St. Augustine recounts miraculous healings in the closing books of his Civitas Dei, about which the Scottish Presbyterian editors of the Post-Nicene Fathers series express skepticism. Romish tall tales, credulity, and manipulation by the patristic bishops, they suggest. I've heard of miracles happening, third-hand, and have read of many instances of healing even in recent times, such as those in the chapter on Miracles in Means to Message by Stanley Jaki, Gifford Lecturer in physics and philosophy. But I've never seen an inexplicable healing up close and personal.

Friends of ours from church, Joe and Karen Cody, have three children -- John Paul, Kara, and Maria. Kara, age nine, recently developed a small tumor on the back of her head behind her hear -- not one that is movable, as in cysts associated with the lymphatic system, but a stationary, hard tumor, of a purplish-bluish color, growing in size. The whole family has been living under a cloud of terrible anxiety with this over the last several days and weekend. Joe called me last week and said he was notifying folk involved in the church's prayer chain. But not wanting to frighten their daughter, they didn't take her to the Emergency Room, but scheduled an appointment today (Monday) with a family physician, who, they expected, would refer them to a surgeon. Over the weekend, Karen had to work (she's a pharmacist), so Joe had the kids, and since his oldest had a game in Georgia, he took them all to Georgia over the weekend. He said his daughter, Kara, was constantly worried, and insisted on sleeping next to him in the motel at night. They went to a Vigil Mass in Georgia at a church called Our Lady of (Perpetual) Help. But he said he was frankly worried, because the growth on the back of Kara's head kept seemed to be growing larger.

Today (Monday), Joe told me, he felt an urge to go spend time with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in Sebastian Chapel, a beautiful stone building that is the original church building of St. Aloysius Parish in the city where we live. He said nobody else was there, and he spent about half an hour alone there in prayer.

Before I go any farther, I have to tell you that Joe is a very 'hands-on' father. He's very intimately involved with his family and children. He's strict in his discipline, but abundant in his affection with them, and it's very clear that they have a good relationship with their father.

While Joe was in Sebastian Chapel, he said he had a sense that the Lord was asking him to "let go" of his daughter. He said it was such a vivid experience that he actually heard a voice tell him that he had to "give her to me." But Joe said he resisted. He told God that he loved his daughter and children so much that he would rather die than anything happen to them. Then he heard God ask him, "Don't you think I love Kara and your other children too? You have to let them go. Turn them over to me. You have to trust me." At that moment, said Joe, a vivid image came before his mind of a boat, containing all three of his children, with the Lord waiting with open hands on the other side of a body of water, a current drawing the boat towards Him, and Joe holding onto the boat by a rope. Joe wouldn't let go. But God told him: "Joe, you have to let go. Give her to me. Give them to me." For fifteen minutes this battle of the will continued, while Joe refused to let go, until, finally, Joe looked at the Crucifix above the Tabernacle and said, "Lord, what else do I have but You? There's no other certainty in life but You. Lord, I trust that you love my children. They're yours." At that moment, the rope immediately severed, and the boat floated over to the Lord.

Hours later, Kara was taken by her mother to her physician. The doctor examined her. He felt the back of her head. The doctor said to her mother, "You're going to have to show me where the growth is." Kara and her mother lifted Kara's hair and showed the doctor where to look. The doctor said: "There's no growth of any kind here." The doctor insisted on some blood work, after hearing the description of the kind of tumor they described. But I think most of us already know what those results will turn up: absolutely nothing. What will the doctor write in the medical report: "psychogenic hallucinations?" Whatever the case, I think most of us -- even if we're no more able to offer a scientific account of what happened here than this rather perplexed physician -- nevertheless understand what happened here. We call it a miracle. Soli Deo gloria.