Mental surgery

One morning I woke up with a deep hunger for more spiritual understanding. I also felt a sore throat coming on, so I decided to concentrate more on the first need and put the physical problem on the back burner. As I prayed, I was impelled to re-read the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, as well as the events leading to that wonderful demonstration of God’s love and power. (See chapter 11 of John’s gospel.) I became so absorbed in it that I forgot about the sore throat. I felt that same love and power enveloping me. I then coughed, and felt something coming up out of my throat. When I went to spit it out in the bathroom sink, I discovered it was a piece of flesh, like some kind of small tumor that had been removed surgically–but without human hands or knife. I didn’t know it had been there as I hadn’t felt anything until that morning when I’d wakened with the discomfort in my throat. All I can say is that I’d experienced the laser-like precision of spiritual light in my thought as I pondered the raising of Lazarus, and that that light was manifested in a tangible way in the perfect removal of something that didn’t belong in my body. It reminded me of St. Paul’s declaration in his epistle to the Hebrews (4:12) that “the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”