THIS IS THE GREATEST MIRACLE
Milena Kindziuk talks with Fr. Antonell Cadeddu – an Italian charismatic and co-founder of the Mercifulness Covenant Group
When a press conference promoting books of Fr. Antonell, an Italian charismatic,was ending, a young woman came up to him. They were talking for a while, then the father laid his hands on her forehead and began to pray for her. The woman closed her eyes and fell limply on the floor. Journalists were standing there stunned. And Fr. Antonello went to the next room where he was to be interviewed be me.
MILENA KINDZIUK: - What happened to the woman whom Father had touched and who fell on the floor?
FR. ANTONELLO CADEDDU: –She received a gift which is called resting in the Holy Spirit. It is experiencing a meeting with God. At this moment the Holy Spirit touches the human heart, tales away physical and psychical resistance. That is why a man cannot stand on his own.
– Had this woman asked Father for a prayer earlier?
– Yes, she had.
– So, does it happen that when somebody asks for a prayer, then falls, while experiencing rest in the Holy Spirit?
– Not it is not so. As resting in the Holy Spirit is a gift and God sometimes gives this gift to us, but He sometimes gives a gift of peace or a different grace, for example. It is the Holy Spirit who decides what to do towards a particular person.
– Was this woman healed?
– I do not know, I sometimes hear about a healing five, six, seven years after my prayer for somebody. But my 25-year-old experience shows that in such moments a man is touched by God’s love and many things change then. So, I do not know what happened here exactly, but Jesus surely touched this woman. However, it does not matter whether I know it, but what is important is that such a person will be with Jesus forever.
– And do Father know about healings which took place?
– I remember a boy whose mother fell out of the seventh floor. He was trying to stop her but did not manage. Later he only saw the body of his mother on a pavement. For twenty years he lived with the sense of guilt. I prayed for him and he experienced resting in the Holy Spirit. Then he saw his mother saying: ‘You should not be frustrated, when I was falling, I asked God to forgive me and now I am in Heaven’. At that moment, the boy regained inner peace and got healed. God’s love can heal our psyche and emotions the best, as well as wounds, grief, depression and also all illnesses which they bring. God’s love reaches the soul in which miracles of forgiveness are done and choosing God by a man.
– Why are some people healed by God but others are not?
– We must Jesus about it.
– But what do Father think about it?
– I think that Jesus touches everybody but we do not notice it at once, and we want everything at once. Whereas sudden healing does not exist. For God nothing is sudden. God’s word says that for God one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years – like one day. So, God somehow touches a man but everything takes time, and does not happen at once. Jesus is a great doctor of souls and knows what and when should be healed. He loves us with infinite love and knows how to speak to everybody individually, so as to show us his tenderness.
– However, some people are severely ill and are not healed. Why?
– It only seems to us, that they were not healed. I will give you an example: one day I was asked to come to a severely ill 34-year-old woman. She was one of the richest women in Brazil. She lived only with parties and took care only about her body. And, suddenly, a neoplasm appeared in her body. I was asked to come and pray for her. In the beginning this woman was very rebelled towards her illness, and could not accept it; she lost her hair about which she had cared earlier, became nervous and stubborn. I talked with her and prayer for her. I visited her several times later. After two years this woman died. But before her death she said the words: ‘Through this illness I found something what is the most important in life – Jesus. Therefore, I strongly ask my relatives, not to rebel against my illness and death because I found real happiness’. Healing for healing itself does not make sense. It must be for something. Looking for healing and a miracle can be a sign of spiritual infantilism.
– So, spiritual healing is more important than the physical one, isn’t it?
– Certainly, it is! Physical healing may last for a few weeks, month, even a few years, because later we all die, anyway. Whereas, what has the permanent value is spiritual healing. Because this is permanent healing.
– But people ‘force their way’ to Heaven to get physical healing and they also happen…
– That is true because a man has a right to be healthy, also physically healthy. And this is natural. However, we must consider the fact that living on the Earth we feel a desire of eternity because we are created for God’s glory, not for a life on the Earth. It passes away but eternal life lasts. Physical healings draw attention the most, are the most spectacular and the most visible, but also the most superficial. For, they do not mean salvation. Whereas they can be a sign, a signal that Jesus heals also this part of a man, which is painful. Healing is a sign of hope for a better future which is eternal.
– Do we have to be prepared for a miracle?
– No, we don’t. Let’s think about a leper from the Gospel who saw that Jesus was passing nearby and asked Him for healing. Jesus uses his own methods which we do not know.
– What is the most memorable miracle which Father remembers the most?
– The greatest miracles which I experienced are the ones when I saw men and women – drugs dealers and prostitutes – who met Jesus. Meeting Jesus – is the greatest miracle.
AA
„Niedziela” 26/2015