In the portion of Mark's Gospel that we read today we see that great crowds are following Jesus, because He has healed so many people. In fact, healing seems to be one of the hallmarks of Jesus early ministry. I can't think of a single time in the Gospels where someone comes to Jesus and asks to be healed and He does not heal them. Note, ofcourse, the situation in Nazareth, His home town, where Jesus "could not do any miracles, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them" (Mk 6:5). The issue there was not Jesus' inability or unwillingness to heal, but the lack of faith of the people where Jesus grew up who couldn't get it into their heads that Jesus was truly the Messiah. Tough to throw off our preconceptions. But if Jesus healed everyone who asked for it in faith back when He was on earth, why doesn't that happen now? What has changed? Is there a failure in us? We might be tempted to think that the problem is that we lack faith, like the folks in Nazareth. But I don't think that is the case. I grew up in the Twin Cities and my mother died of cancer when I was 19. She was 48. That was back in 1967. Both my parents were strong Catholics, and when my mom got sick I know that a large number of people prayed for her healing. When I first came to St. Richard's in 2004 there were people who told me that they had prayed for my mom-- 37 years earlier. It simply isn't the case that none of those people had faith. I'm pretty sure my parents did, and I'll bet almost-all of the other people who prayed for my mom's healing did too. Yet, healing was not what happened. Why? Well, the simple answer is "only God knows." I know that is unsatisfying. But imagine if our prayers for healing were always answered, as seems to have been the case in Jesus' time. What if whatever happened to us we could just ask Jesus to heal us and that would happen? No pain, no sickness, no death. Wonderful, right? I'm not so sure. Wouldn't that turn us all into a bunch of narcissists? What would we have to care about except our own pleasure? And wouldn't that turn God into our little errand-boy, cleaning up our messes? Prayer is exceptionally-important and sometimes, somehow, we change God's mind in the process (or maybe God knew that we would pray and had already factored that into the equation-- who knows?). So, by all means, as Jesus tells us, ask the Father for what we need. But if we need healing and it doesn't come, don't think your prayers weren't heard or weren't answered. They were. We just may not know how. One way our prayers may well have been answered is in our spiritual dimension. God may not always give us physical healing, but God unfailingly grants our requests for spiritual healing. That healing, that growth, may be slow and painful, but if we seek it, it always comes. God always wants to soften our hearts. God longs for a relationship with us. All we have to do is ask.