Having a good doctor and religiously taking medicines could boost one’s healing, but having a dose of faith is necessary to achieve complete helping, a Catholic prelate said Thursday, as the nation observes the World Day of the Sick.
"For a person to be healed, its not enough to have a good doctor and medicine, the person must also desire healing. The person has to believe that he or she will be healed...it is their faith (in God) that gives that," Archdiocese of Manila Apostolic Administrator Bishop Broderick S. Pabillo said during his homily in a Mass in Manila, Thursday for the World Day of the Sick observance.
"We do not insist that we be healed but we place ourselves in the loving hands of God," he added.
That's why, Pabillo said, the faithful especially those taking care of the sick to see to it that they don't lose faith.
"We need to strengthen their love, their faith in God. There are those who keep holding on to the belief that they will be healed because of their children or spouse.
They hold on because of love, continously praying because of their faith in God," he said.
The World Day of the Sick is an annual event celebrated on February 11 – the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, whose shrine has become a sanctuary of human suffering.
Pope Saint John Paul II initiated the day in 1992 to encourage the faithful to pray for those who suffer from illness and for their caregivers.