The clearest reference, in the New Testament, to the prayer offered by priests for the healing of the sick is contained in the Ecclesiastes of James, where we read: “Is there anyone among you who is suffering? Let him pray! Are you happy? Let's chant! Are you sick among you? Let him call the elders of the church, and let them pray over him after anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith saves the sick person, and the Lord makes him well” (5:13-15).

We are drawn to, in the words of the Apostle James, several things - and I will leave here talking about anointing the sick person with oil - the first of which is that he asks the sick person personally to pray, in times of suffering, with faith, to the Lord, the next is to call the priests to pray over him, and the third is to trust that the prayer of the Church It saves him and qualifies him for the recovery that the Lord gives.

What we know from our reality is that most people turn to God if illness strikes them without asking permission, and they pray with faith, waiting for recovery from it. This is legitimate. But only the few call priests to pray over them. This contradicts the teaching of the Apostle, who rejects all separation from the Church. This is because the mention of the priests and their call to prayer, in his words above, is not a secondary mention, that is, it can be dispensed with. Priests are servants of God and his people, and therefore they represent the Church. By mentioning them here and urging the believers to call them in case they become ill, the Messenger intimately connects the believers to the Church. Since there is no individual faith in Christianity, that is, a person lives by it - alone - apart from his church, but faith is received from the church and lived in it, and the person behaves according to its requirements throughout his life.

But if we want to analyze the reasons that led people to neglect church fellowship, we find that they are many and varied. The first is that many people understand Christianity wrongly. Their individualism is nothing but blatant evidence of their wrong understanding. It is natural for someone who lives an individual life to neglect the commitment and awareness that Christianity assumes. That is, it is natural for him to isolate himself from the group, feeling that he is able to be a Christian alone without needing anyone. What seems certain is that many believers have subsequently begun to be influenced by the ideas of some Shiites who nurture the spirit of individualism in them. You see them living on the margins of commitment, even if they are not separated from their church, its secrets, and its practices. That is, do you see them selectively selecting what they like from the teachings of their church and rejecting what the Shiites reject or err? Priests praying for the sick is one of the things that some Shiites reject and which some of us have adopted without review or discrimination. It also seems that many among us are “pessimistic” about the presence of priests, so they neglect calling them to pray for their patients?!

I will not respond, in this haste, to those who are neglected or to those who have been influenced by the ideas of the Shiites. These and those can, if they want to correct their situation, return to many articles published by “my congregation” in which I addressed this or that situation. I will not speak about the believers who rejoice at the visit of their priest and consider it a blessing from God, as these are precious pearls, and they must be emulated. But what concerns me here are those who ask for the prayer of the priests and are pessimistic about their visitation. There are two types: The first type is represented by those who ask for the prayer of the priests but refuse to visit them completely. The second type is represented by those who accept their visits under conditions. Some of them refuse to let the priest pray in the same room as the patient, and ask him to “perform his duty” in another room?! Some of them insist that the prayer be performed in the same room, but from a distance?! Some of them ask him to pray in a whisper so that his patient does not hear and become afraid?!

This is the case for many. It is a disastrous situation, if I do not say that it is offensive to the faith that our books recorded and through whose blessings the righteous people of history lived.

What is clear is that there is a terrible contradiction between requesting the prayers of priests and setting conditions that do not indicate our faith and awareness. How, for example, do we want to convince God that we trust Him and believe in His blessings, when we ask that the church prayer (which the priest recites over the sick person) be performed in a whisper, or from afar, or from an adjacent room? Isn't this a type of magic that we justify by saying that God knows what is in the hearts and what they need? Why are we afraid that the patient will know about the presence of the priest or that he will hear the prayer that he performs, which might open his heart and make him repent to God? We may act in a way that our patients do not agree with and force them to adhere to our position, because in reality we are the ones who are pessimistic or afraid of the presence of priests, not them?!

We, without a doubt, do not ask for illness, but when it comes, we accept it, confident that God is our help in all our circumstances. In this case, priests play a special role. They are entrusted with God's secrets. This means that they are charged with strengthening the patient’s relationship with God, so they listen to his confession, if he is conscious and able to express himself, and offer him the body and blood of the Lord, which are “eternal life and its continuity.”

However, priests are not the only ones concerned with caring for the spiritually sick. Every believer, whether a relative of the sick person, a friend, or a neighbor, has the duty to pray to God for his sick person and for his recovery. The prayer of the Church is able to appeal to the Lord and perform miracles. Therefore, it is the duty of the believers gathered around their sick person, when the priests enter, for example, to stand and participate in prayer, so they do not remain sitting together, talking, drinking coffee, or smoking, as if prayer were the job of the priests and did not concern anyone else.

In the end, no one can escape the disease. This is our companion as long as we are in the body. Every fear of death distorts our commitment and inevitably leads us into sin. In times of pain, we may forget God and His sufferings that He was satisfied with for us. We may remember His companionship and our distance from Him and ask, with confidence, for His reconciliation. We do not let distortions fill our head and our convictions. What the Apostle James said alone gives us the right, that is, to reconcile the church served by priests and strengthened by the faith of the community that lives in the kingdom of wellness.

From my parish bulletin 2002