Prayers for Sick

In the May 2006 edition of Nature Medicine there is a short article titled: Prayer lacks the power to heal, study finds. The article states:

The largest and most rigorous study to explore the effect of prayer on healing found in March that appeals to a higher being do not necessarily aid recovery.

Researchers measured the effects of intercessory prayer, or the act of praying for another person from a distance, on 1,802 heart-bypass patients in six US hospitals. One Protestant and two Catholic groups prayed each day for 14 days as patients rolled into surgery. The researchers found that individuals who were prayed for suffered as many complications from bypass surgery as those who were not.

At this point we can see many jumping on the band-wagon and saying, it's obvious: the prayers were not Orthodox. That, however, is not the problem. If a similar experiment were conducted with Orthodox groups, the results would be much the same.

The issue at hand is one of free will, which means that no one can, even in principle, provide proof of God's existence. Even more amazing, God Himself cannot provide us with proof of His existence. How could this be?

Go back to square one. It is not technically possible for someone to practise love without free will - no free will, no love. To love someone (including God) or not to love can only have meaning if it is done voluntarily - because we want to do it, and not because we have to. Once that choice is removed, love is killed.

This leads to the following conclusion: in this world, God can (and must) provide evidence of His existence, but under no circumstances, proof. This is obvious?

Say Mr Gun had a bitter hatred for Mr Victim and wanted to kill him. That is his desire, and desire is synonymous with free will. Now if God appeared to Mr Gun, and convinced him that He IS God, but did nothing else - just stood there, would Mr Gun go ahead and kill Mr Victim? He would not, because he would know that he would go to hell as a consequence. That KNOWLEDGE would therefore violate his free will - it would stop him from doing what he wants to do. Consequently God can ONLY interact with us via faith.

This then leads to the obvious question, why do we Orthodox pray for the sick? Because God heals people through prayers. Pardon?

Now we are getting down to tin-tacks. The experiment described above had the sole purpose of proving or disproving God's existence. Healing was the mechanism for doing this. And God cannot reveal Himself through experiment. If He did, then that would be proof of His existence.

On the other hand, when we pray for help as individuals, or as a group, we are not seeking proof of God's existence; we already know that He exists, and it is our desire for Him to interact with us - to hear us, and to help us. In this situation, His active involvement with us no longer violates our free will, because it is our wish to be with Him. So to the extent that we want Him involved, to that extent WE allow His participation. God always wants to be with us, but we are the ones that determine the extent of that involvement.

Concerning God’s response to prayers for sick, it is not a case of God being selective, where He answers some prayers (presumably because these are worthy people) and not others. If the prayer is genuine God will listen, and His response will be tailor-made for each individual case. Sometimes the response is sudden or rapid, sometimes it appears delayed, and sometimes it appears not answered. God however looks at the big picture in terms of total outcome and overall benefit, and His response is always one that is best.

When we learn to understand this in our hearts then we will always be at peace with God, and that peace is a treasure beyond comprehension. Its significance is so great that it almost becomes a precondition for salvation. How so? When a heart is in turmoil, when it is agitated, when it is upset or distressed, it is incapable of feeling, or being receptive to God’s love, to His gentle interaction with us. The prophet Isaiah mentions that God speaks to us like a gentle breeze, and so if our life is like a whirlwind of emotion, that whirlwind sweeps aside God’s gentle breeze, without us ever being aware of its existence. On the other hand, when we have a loving link with God, then we are able to perceive and receive God’s response and interaction; only then do St Seraphim’s words become reality: our (primary) aim in life should be the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, and this in turn leads to salvation.

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