I join my prayer to yours, asking God to take away your pain and restore your health, but I must also speak a sharper word, not to wound, but to heal. For when Christ healed the paralytic, He did not stop with the body. He said, “Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” Do you see? God often allows the flesh to be scourged because the soul is diseased without our feeling it. When internal remedies fail, the Physician applies the cautery to the body so that the better part may be saved. Your pain, then, may be such a medicine. Search your life. Is there some sin lying unconfessed, some habit that defiles? Do not ask only for relief of the flesh while neglecting the soul. For if you hear these words in a carnal way, looking merely to what is before the eyes, the flesh profits nothing. You must see with the eyes within, spiritually.
And do not turn aside to amulets or any superstitious charm, even if an old woman who calls herself a Christian persuades you. That is not the remedy of the faithful; it is idolatry. Let your only weapon be the sign of the Cross; this is your healing, your protection, and other I know none. Christ the true Physician is not ashamed to enter the houses of sinners or to sit at table with them, for by such kindness He corrects the sick. He knows your pain intimately, He testifies what He has seen, and He is able to make you whole. I know these words gall you and give you pain, but I do not speak them willingly. I speak them on compulsion, because the threat of hell and the danger of a worse thing befalling you compel me. This very discourse is a cure, however bitter, for it braces the soul and casts out the desires that destroy. I will pray that the Lord grant you bodily relief according to His will, yet far more that He grant you true healing of soul, so that whether in health or in affliction, you may bring forth abundant fruit and lay hold on eternal life in the name of Jesus.