The pain wracking your friend's body is not beyond the reach of the Healer who needs no time to restore. Do you recall the fever that left Peter's mother-in-law? The Gospel says that when Christ touched her hand, He did not merely quench the fever; He gave her back perfect health all at once, a thing no physician's art could accomplish. As we have seen, even after fevers depart, the afflicted need much time to return to their former strength. But then, the cure was complete and instantaneous. Pray, then, with this confidence, yet do not dictate the manner or the hour. Seek the medicine of His will, for some distempers are cured swiftly and others by a slower grace that teaches us endurance.
But see that you do not judge by appearance alone. You rightly seek the mending of the body, yet the Lord often uses bodily affliction as a bitter medicine for the whole man. They who are in a fever do not rage against the physician who brings them a purgative draft, though it taste acrid. Do not be disgusted at the medicines which bring health. The dullness of our hearing, born of sin or continual affliction, often requires a sharper remedy. In your prayer, consider that health is a great gift, but there is a wholeness that exceeds it. The Lord spoke of making a man whole, healthy entirely, and this points to something deeper than a body free from pain. For what benefit is it if the body be sound but the soul remains utterly undone?
Therefore, let your prayer ascend with faith in the unutterable mysteries, but let it be joined with alms and deeds of mercy, for the greatness of alms is not measured by the quantity but by the purpose. And do not cease your supplication, for it is not the voice of the deacon alone but the very ordinance of the Spirit that the Sacrifice is offered for the living and the departed, and it is the greatest honor to be remembered in that dread hour. Beseech the Physician of souls and bodies, who took the form of a slave for you, that if this ailment be the occasion for his salvation, let not the healing come without a true conversion of heart.
Finally, let your own conduct become a work of friendship according to Christ. Show your friend the care that surpasses fathers and sons. Be as diligent in your compassion as the Apostle was for Epaphroditus, with no procrastination, for we rejoice not in hearing of health so much as we witness it. And should the Lord see fit to grant healing, let it be an occasion for you both to dispense with the words “mine” and “thine” regarding the mercy received, and to spend yourselves for one another, thus making friends of the mammon of unrighteousness and storing up boldness for the day that truly matters.