In the Holy Scriptures, Our Lord invites all who would hear, both then and now, to “come to me all you who are burdened and I will give you rest.”  He promises that all we need to do is “ask, and you shall receive.”

In the days that our Lord lived among us on this earth, a blind man approached Him, took Him at His word and asked for healing: “Lord, that I might see.”  Our Lord healed Him.

Thirteen years ago, I also took Our Lord at His word.

It was a routine cataract operation.  The first cataract operation had gone well, so there was no reason to expect the second would be any different.  You can imagine how shocking it was when the day after my second cataract surgery, I found that I could not even see the hand in front of my eyes.  The diagnosis: a staph infection.

I was immediately rushed by the head of the three-generation ophthalmological practice to a nearby hospital where two Chinese specialists performed a vitrectomy (a procedure in which they remove all the liquid out of the eyeball until it is totally flat and then refill it with antibiotics).

Then followed three months of daily visits to the doctors . . . with no exceptions.  Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day . . . everyday. Each day with dizzying thoroughness, doctors examined my eye leaving me feeling unbalanced in more ways than one.   At home, I had to put three drops, 5 minutes apart, into my eye around the clock every hour.  That meant I was only able to sleep in 45-minute increments.  Consequently, I lost track of time . . . and reality.  Friends who saw me during those months, tell me my eye looked like a squashed tomato.  The one thing, the only thing, I know for certain is that amidst those unsettling and disorienting days of physical blindness, I was given a spiritual clarity, a spiritual sight, that I had never had before.

My faithful husband was ever at my side for whatever I needed.  At one point the doctors informed him that they thought the infection might progress into my brain.  Realizing the fatal nature of this infection, I appealed to Our Lord for His mercy.  I remembered the stories of Our Lord, the promises of Our Lord, in Holy Scriptures.  My prayers were familiar, confident and submissive:

“Lord, I know that with you there is no time.  So, here I am standing right next to that fellow into whose eyes you are putting clay and spittle.  Please put some in mine.  If it is Your Will to heal me, I will appreciate it, but if it is your will that I be blind, I know you will give me the grace to cope.”

The next visit to the ophthalmologist left the doctors amazed.  My eye showed no signs of a problem or having been infected.  The Chinese doctors were speechless.  One of the American doctors  jumped up from his seat, shook my husband’s hand, saying to us: “Staph infections are the most virulent of all; there is no sign of there ever having been one.  This is a miracle.”

Having moved from California to Charlotte, North Carolina, I visit an ophthalmologist once a year for a check up.  The ophthalmologists here are also amazed.  One doctor said that although my records are the size of a telephone book, there is absolutely no sign that what they describe has ever happened to my eye.  I now have perfect vision in both eyes and do not need glasses to drive or watch TV.  I do, of course, use readers, a common reading companion for many people.

I learned through this harrowing experience to take Our Lord at His Word.  He means what He says.  His Words and His miracles are as fresh and potent today as they were in the time he walked among the people of the Holy Land.  We simply need to believe Him and, in submission to His Love, present our needs to Him.