Search
-
December 5, 2022The Gospels recount multiple instances of Jesus’s healing miracles. Episodes like the healing of the paralytic in today’s Gospel reveal the Lord’s compassion when faced with human suffering. What may be less obvious is the profound relationship between the healing Jesus offers and God’s gracious gift of salvation. One of the most ancient titles for Christ is that of "Divine Physician, healer of souls and bodies.” The root of our English word salvation is salus, a Latin word meaning “health.” The alleviation or even eradication of suffering is therefore only the tip of the iceberg of the healing Jesus offers. To receive God’s gift of salvation is to be comprehensively and radically healed, to the very root of our human nature. The Church’s wisdom communicates this profound truth by referring to the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Anointing as the Sacraments of Healing, revealing the radical nature of God’s desire to restore our human nature and then transcend its natural limits, by drawing it into communion with Himself.
In the here and now, Christ the Divine Physician may provide supernatural courage and the deepening of compassion and trust. In some rarer cases, we may even experience the cessation of physical illness. When Jesus heals the paralytic, he does not stop at restoring his ability to walk but performs the even more astonishing task of remitting his sins, thereby healing his inability to give himself fully to God. For the paralytic, healing is ultimately the restoration of his ability to walk unencumbered into the very embrace of his Creator. Regardless of the specific manifestations of healing grace we may experience, Christian hope looks in the here and now for signs of the integral fullness of the glory to come. Christians ought to hope and continually pray for healing. May we pray without ceasing that God fully refashion us after the likeness of the Divine Physician, the healer of souls and bodies, Jesus Christ himself.
