Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / That God's works might be revealed: Looking at the healing ministry of Christ
That God's works might be revealed: Looking at the healing ministry of Christ
by Jonathan F. Sullivan special to The Michigan Catholic
Published July 25, 2008
Since its beginnings the Church has been concerned for the health and well-being of all people. Some of the most dramatic stories in the New Testament recount the many ways in which Jesus delivered the sick from illnesses.
Through the use of words and signs, and often asking only for faith in return, Christ manifested the grace of the Father to sick people, transforming their pain into joy and their despair into hope.
In the time of Christ, many people believed that sickness was a sign of disfavor by the gods. Jesus, however, rejected this idea, seeing in the sick an opportunity for God's blessing. When asked why a man had been born blind, Jesus replied, "Neither this man nor his parent sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him" (John 9:3).
In addition to blindness Jesus was also able to heal deafness (Mark 7:31-37), leprosy (Luke 17:11-19), severe bleeding (Mark 5:24-43) and paralysis (Matthew 9:1-8), to name but a few. All four Gospels describe Jesus raising the dead. The most famous of these stories is that of Lazarus (John 11:38-44), although Jesus also raised Jairus' daughter (Luke 8:41-56) and the only son of a widow (Luke 7:11-15).
Jesus' healings often contained a spiritual dimension as well. He expelled a legion of demons from a Gerasene man into a herd of swine (Mark 5:1-15); drove seven demons from Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2); and forgave the sins of a paralytic man (Mark 2:2-12).
As Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis, formerly of Detroit, points out, Jesus' ministry to the sick encompasses three reactions: conversation, compassion and touch. Jesus could have chosen to simply speak a word and heal; instead, He chose to engage the sick in a personal manner. At a time when the sick and mentally ill were outcast, Jesus acknowledged them and invited them into his presence. When the sick were reviled, He offered words of compassion. And when others avoided them, he reached out and allowed Himself to be touched by the sick, taking their pain and making it his own — ultimately, to the cross.
Following Christ's resurrection and ascension the apostles continued to heal people. Many of the saints ministered to the needs of the sick in their times. Today, the ministry of healing continues in the Church. Through the sacraments of reconciliation and anointing of the sick, along with its sponsorship of hospitals, hospice ministries and chaplains, the Church seeks to increase the physical, mental and spiritual health of all people, especially the poor and underserved.
Jonathan F. Sullivan, MA, mission fellow at Trinity Health, is a former member of the Archdiocesan Committee on Health Care Ethics.
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