Newsletter - 5th September 2021
Laying His Hands On Each He Cured Them
The cleansing of the leper, near the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, presaged the prominent role healings would play in his mission …. The human person is an inseparable unity of body and soul. Christ came not just to save souls but to save human beings – to raise us up, body and soul, to the fullness of divine life in communion with God and all the redeemed forever. The body therefore has inestimable significance in God’s plan. It will one day be radiant with divine life (1 Co 15 :42-49). Jesus’ healings of bodily sickness and infirmity are a foreshadowing of the glorious destiny of the human body.
Twenty-one percent of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ public ministry is devoted to reports of his physical healings and exorcisms – a striking percentage when one considers the length and importance of his teachings, not to mention other miracles such as the multiplication of loaves and the calming of the storm. Clearly, Jesus’ healings are not a minor element or peripheral to his real purpose …… Jesus’ healings are inseparable from his preaching of the kingdom of God. He began his public ministry by announcing the arrival of the kingdom, then he demonstrated it by his healings and miracles. In Jesus’ very presence, in his words and deeds, the reign of God has been inaugurated on earth. The dominion of satan has been broiken and the restoration of all creation has begun. The miracles are the embodiment of the good news itself : that he is the long-awaited Messiah who has come to overthrow every kind of evil and restore God’s people to the fullness of life.
Mary Healy
Mary Healy is a professor of Sacred Scripture and a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission