To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles…I Corinthians 12:7-9 NRSV

Jesus healed with compassionate touch, and taught his disciples to do so. Someone has fits, fever, blindness, or can’t speak: a plea for help, a touch, and health restored. Possession is transformed into inner freedom, darkness and pain to light and relief. The gift of healing continues to be given to this very day.

There are those who take advantage of the desperate and sick, turning suffering into a self-glorifying and profitable spectacle. They prey on those least able to see them for what they are. But that doesn’t mean that the gift of healing isn’t alive and well in our time and place. It is. True healers are among us. Sometimes, the Spirit heals even through the least likely sources: the con artists who claim a gift they do not have.