Angelus News | July 19-26, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 26

SHUTTERSTOCK
discomfort are characteristic of the human
condition since the fall of Adam
and Eve. And those who suffered went
looking, sometimes desperately, for
relief.
Such was the world into which the
Christ was born. And it was to
heal that world that he came.
When asked to verify his own mission,
Jesus presented physical cures as evidence:
“The blind receive their sight
and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed
and the deaf hear, and the dead are
raised up, and the poor have good
news preached to them” (Matthew
11:5).
Healing, then, was an essential part
of Jesus’ ministry. It wasn’t something
ornamental. In addition to the ailments
he mentioned, Jesus also cured dropsy,
paralysis, palsy, and hemorrhage.
He cured not only Jews, but also Samaritans,
pagan Syro-Phoenicians, and
even the occupying Romans.
His cures were unmistakably physical.
But John the Evangelist tells us they
were “signs” — that is, they stood for
something else, something greater.
They were signs of a deeper healing —
the healing of a wound in the fabric of
creation.
Yet they were nonetheless real and
true. The blind really did receive their
sight. The lame really did walk. And
lepers really were cleansed. Neither Jesus
nor his disciples would have offered
these cures as evidence if they could be
easily dismissed and denied.
These cures were, moreover, performed
not only by Jesus, but also by
his followers, his disciples. In fact, Jesus
commanded his disciples to share in
his healing ministry. He issued what
I like to call “the healing imperative.”
As he sent the 72 out on their first
mission, Jesus instructed them to
“heal the sick … and say to them,
‘The kingdom of God has come
near to you’ ” (Luke 10:9).
Note well that the command to heal
precedes the command to proclaim the
kingdom. It’s as if physical healing is
a necessary step of pre-evangelization.
Or perhaps Jesus intended that the
kingdom should manifest itself first
through deeds of healing, and then
simply be confirmed by the disciples’
words of proclamation.
The disciples were faithful to Jesus’
command. They marveled at their
success as they returned from that first
mission. And that was only the beginning.
The book following the Gospels,
the Acts of the Apostles — the first history
of the early Church — begins by
recounting miraculous cures effected
by Peter and John.
Paul, in turn, takes up the healing
mission of Jesus. On the island of
Malta, he heals a man who “lay sick
with fever and dysentery.” And then,
predictably, “the rest of the people on
the island who had diseases also came
and were cured” (Acts 28:8–9).
The apostles, like Jesus before them,
were known for their healing as much
as their preaching. They were faithful
to the command of Jesus — and the
model of Jesus.
Throughout the writings of the
early Christians, there is an
emphasis on Jesus as a healer.
St. Ignatius of Antioch, writing in A.D.
107, spoke of the Lord as a physician.
The early historian Eusebius de-
“Christ Healing the Blind,” by El Greco, 1570, Greek.
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
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