Only Say a Word and I Will Be Healed

     Recently, I’ve become good friends with a charismatic Catholic in our parish who is currently serving with me on a Christ Renews His Parish women’s retreat formation team. She was the one who invited me to my first charismatic Mass, which I really enjoyed. It was fun singing really upbeat, soulful songs, some of which I remembered from college when I participated in the campus Baptist Student Union for Bible study and Christian fellowship.

     There was a man next to me at the Mass who speaks French. He said many of the prayers we were praying aloud in French, and it reminded me of going to Mass in Paris once I’d finally found the Magnificat in French and learned to pray all of the prayers I’d memorized in English during my youth in a second language.
     I still say: “Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word, and I shall be healed” aloud during the Eucharistic prayer, then silently follow it with: “Seigneur, je ne suis pas digne de te recevoir, mais dis seulement une parole et je serai guéri…je serai guéri.”
     I actually like the French better because the article is different, so the direct translation would be: Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but say only a/one word, and I will be healed. This translation sounds even more powerful to me for some reason. It may because the English version seems to imply that with the Lord’s permission or go ahead, a person will be healed.
     I guess I see the French translation as going one step further and claiming that only one utterance, just one single word from the Lord, is enough to wipe away all suffering in mind, body, and/or spirit. Both are equally true statements, and soon neither will be used since the wording of the Eucharistic prayer is going to be taught to us in a translation closer to that of the original text.
     Lord, thank You for the gift of Your son, for the graces of faith, healing, hope, love, peace and joy.  Show us how to submit more fully to Your will, so that the Holy Spirit can move freely in and through us to reach others of every race, color, and creed. Amen.