And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven (James 5:15)
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Last weekend we attended the jubilant celebration of my daughter's graduation from college. Four years of outstanding academic achievement had been concluded and my immediate family traveled to Pennsylvania to view the commencement. I prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for this awesome day. We were accompanied by my 87 year-old father and my 86 year-old mother who, in contradicting their own mandate from two previous years ago that they "will never travel to the north again", made the trip because my father was "sick of sittin' around Florida doin' nuthin' while all these family celebrations are happening".
My father had arrived in Mercer County with a cough. The cough was barely noticeable the first night they arrived. The next day we traveled by car out to Lancaster to view the Baccalaureate proceedings and to have dinner with my daughter and her boyfriend. My father's cough became more consistent and angry and I noticed that he only finished half his dinner...which is an incident that is virtually unheard of. We drove back to the hotel and after dropping off my parents at their hotel room, I beseeched my father to try and get a little rest. As I sat in my own hotel room, I pondered how needy my parents had become and wondered how we were going to get through all of the next day without them becoming exhausted along the way.
The next morning, my mother calmly came to our hotel room and spoke to my son and his wife (I was taking a shower at the time) and told them that my father had gone to the bathroom at 2:00 in the morning and fallen and hit his head on the doorway and scraped his arm on the carpeting. He had gotten very little sleep the rest of the night. Considering the circumstances, they felt it would be better if they just rested for a while longer and that we should pick them up around 11:00 AM when check-out time rolled around. I heard all of this when I got out of the shower and remarked that it was impossible to come back to the hotel to pick them up because that would be exactly in the middle of the commencement exercises. We made arrangements for them to book another night at the hotel so they could get more rest. I went into their hotel room and was shocked at my father's appearance. I have been bed-side at deathbeds and his condition rivaled those instances. I said a quick prayer and told my mother I would call them every two hours. To say I was concerned and distracted would be a major understatement.
I did call them every two hours and the word was always that he was resting and trying to gain some strength. We made arrangements to meet them after dinner and if possible, check them out of the hotel and drive them back to my home that night. The rest of us went through the day; the book signings; the photographs; the meeting with the college president; the dinner - all the time I was trying to smile and remain upbeat. When we later arrived at the hotel, my parents surprised me by coming out of the hotel elevator just as we were coming into the lobby. My father looked awful. He was adamant about going home that night but first needed to go to the men's room. We waited in the lobby for an eternity and when he finally came out of the bathroom, he looked like death. He was sweating profusely, gasping for air; his lower lip was distended and he could barely stand up. He could not catch his breath. We immediately sat him in one of the lobby chairs and nursed him with food and water and a cold washcloth for his forehead, patiently waiting for him to gain some strength. I said a prayer. He stubbornly did not want to go to the hospital so we eventually got him in my car and off we went.
The next day (Mother's Day), we admitted him to the hospital in New Jersey where he was diagnosed with pneumonia and immediately given anti-biotic, steroids, and fluids. He was discharged the next night and flew home to Florida Tuesday morning as scheduled. He still has the cough but he is gaining strength and hopefully returning to normal in his familiar surroundings. I said a prayer of thanks.
In the past two or three years, I have prayed for my father more than any other individual. So how does this prayer thing work? Have I accumulated credit for my father in some elaborate accounting method so my prayers were answered this time around (To tell the truth, I was praying that my father would survive this trip)? Mark Twain said that our God is "capricious". Did I just luck out this time and caught God on a good day? I think the answer to these questions can be found as "the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective". Evidently I have a hint of righteousness within me somewhere.
Dear Heavenly Father,Thank you for listening to the prayers of your servant. Help me to continue to seek righteousness as I continue to petition you to bless my family and the Christian community. Amen.
Contributed by Donald
Monday May 18, 2015
Liturgical Year B: Week 25
Liturgical Color: White
Sunday Gospel reading: Easter7
Seventh Sunday in Easter Sunday