THE GIFT OF HEALING
by Arsenio C Jesena

My dear Nyssa,

By the way, there were some strange, even miraculous things that happened to me during Martial Law.

One of those things was the GIFT OF HEALING.

But why mention this at all? To openly acknowledge the strange and wonderful fact that God did work some miraculous healings through -- me.

We, zealots, crusaders and activists, all profoundly craved and
strove for the liberation of our poor exploited and helpless
countrymen -- to achieve and construct some sort of a heaven-on-earth for our suffering multitudes.

But we did not always succeed. Instead, we were incessantly battered and defeated by cruel failure. Had we been too proud? Too selfish? Too materialistic? Too worldy?

But we are only human. And,after all the battles, and after all our
failures, we were tired, and angry -- at ourselves, at life, at -- God. For
we had been fighting His battles. Why then did He not cause us to win? Why did He abandon us? How can God be so unfair?

And then we finally demanded, “God -- do you really exist?”

And God, to answer my desperate question, gave me -- the gift
of healing.

Whenever I was really at the lowest point of faith, God would
so arrange things that I would find myself face-to-face with grave,
even irreversible illness of people I really cared for.

The science of medicine and the skills of doctors could no longer help. And I
would find myself wishing that the poor, sick person would get well.

And deep in my heart I would hear a message -- “Touch the
sick person, and pray.” Then God, hearing my hesitant wish,
would grant me a miracle – a miracle of healing!

To prove to me that He did exist, and He did care.

I sat down this morning and I wrote down what I remembered
of the miraculous healings that God did through me. No, there was
never an attention-getting, public healing. Never anything
astounding. Every miraculous healing was privately, silently done.
Only the sick person and the family and I would know about it.

And I was so hard-headed, that I did not learn my lesson after
one miracle. God had to heal again and again, before I would
eventually learn the lesson -- that God does exist. And He cares --
for me, for all of us.


What kind of healings were they? All kinds. The healing of
meningitis, and cancer of all sorts, and heart problems, and
blindness and hemorrhage, and asthma, and dengue fever, and
epilepsy, and shattered bodies -- and at least two hundred cases of
married couples who had had no children, and now, by the tender
grace of God, finally gifted with the wonderful living gift of healthy, happy, lively children!

Thank you, Lord, for seeking me out and reminding me that you
are always near, and that You do care.

But Nyssa, you yourself have personally witnessed some of these healings -- before your very presence and your very eyes – especially the constant, prolonged, miraculous healing of our Tita Tisay Cañada Cañet.