Confronting contagion with healing prayer
As the world grows smaller with the ease of intercontinental air travel and multiplying legions of travelers take to the friendly skies every day, some concerns grow larger. One of those is the concern of contagious diseases moving about the planet more swiftly than ever.
In the quest to find the most effective answers to this concern, it's good to know that already in place is an arsenal of spiritual resources that can be an immeasurable help, that can literally stop the spread of fear.
Stopping the fear is not incidental; and nothing is more useful in stopping fear than knowledge. Especially the knowledge of a few key spiritual facts. First of all, the fact that the Almighty is present. And His presence, which is the presence of divine Love itself, has a neutralizing effect on fear. It's not too much to say: Stop the fear and you help stop the spread of the contamination itself.
This is true; it is tangibly, palpably provable, and has a track record of success that is both widespread and longstanding, even though this track record is too often overlooked.
Consider this from the healing ministry of Christ Jesus. Plainly, there was no concern in his day about contagious ailments jumping from continent to continent. But a huge fear existed about them jumping from body to body. That was one of the fears Jesus faced and outfaced when confronted by a man struggling under the condition of leprosy – a condition popularly believed to be highly contagious. Did Jesus see himself at risk? Not for a moment. The Master was so fear-free, so filled with the love he'd gained from the Source of love, so sure of God's healing presence that he did the unthinkable. He touched the man, who, in that society would have been considered untouchable.
The Bible puts it this way: "And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean" (Mark 1:41). Healing followed in an instant.
Note what moved him to act. "Compassion," says the Bible.
In the Bible you find that when Jesus had compassion or was moved with compassion, it was never a matter of "Oh, here's something nice from me," and then the problem continuing on. When he was moved with compassion, transformation occurred. Hungry multitudes were fed. Grieving mothers had sorrow swept away and replaced with joy, and reason for joy. The sick were healed. Why? Because that compassion wasn't just a nice emotion coming from one human to another. It was the love that emanated from divine Love itself.
And that healed. Jesus proved this time and again. Better yet, he left both example and instruction underscoring that spiritual healing is possible and practical today. Actually, such healing is uniquely valuable because the power behind it – the power of divine Love –reaches to even remote locations with a speed that other methods of treatment can't match. In other words, God is already on the next continent over, and prayer has no borders.
A pioneer in the reintroduction of Christian healing, Mary Baker Eddy once wrote a brief article on contagion. After alluding to the safety that comes from dwelling in the habitation of the most High, she adds, "The confidence of mankind in contagious disease would thus become beautifully less; and in the same proportion would faith in the power of God to heal and to save mankind increase, until the whole human race would become healthier, happier, and longer lived. A calm, Christian state of mind is a better preventive of contagion than a drug, or than any other possible sanative method; and the 'perfect Love' that 'casteth out fear' is a sure defense" ("Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896," p. 229).
