Week Four Reading

As our Lenten fast continues and perhaps intensifies, we might become aware of the growing hunger inside us. We might start to realize that we are weaker than we thought and are in need of a strength that cannot come from ourselves alone. Bob Schuchts [proncounced “SHOOTS”], a best-selling Catholic writer and founder of the John Paul II Healing Center, writes of this need for healing in this week’s reading excerpt. He starts with the question Jesus asked of the lame man at the pool in Bethesda: Do you want to be healed? He asks this of each of us and connects the idea of our own brokenness — which our fasting has perhaps unearthed a bit! — to God’s great desire to offer us healing, mercy, and transformative love.
 

I am in awe at Jesus’ insight in human nature. I know he created us, but still his ability to see right into the heart of a situation always amazes me. No matter how badly bound we are, he seems to know the exact key to unlock our prison doors. Time and again throughout the gospels, we see his wisdom manifested in his interaction with each person he meets. His encounter with the man at the pool of Bethesda is a prime example (John 5:1–9).

Can you fathom what it was like for this lame man to lay beside a “healing” pool for thirty-eight years but never get in? To put it into a modern-day context, imagine someone lying beside the healing waters of Lourdes for thirty-eight years. Can you even imagine that? Day after day, year after year, this man of Bethesda waited helplessly for someone to assist him. Thousands passed him by until Jesus stopped and listened to the cry of his heart.

I’m sure Jesus approached this poor man with compassion, but I must admit I’m a bit troubled by his opening words: “Do you want to be well?” (John 5:6). To me, it sounds like Jesus is accusing the man of playing the victim. My initial reaction is to step in to defend the helpless mean: Of course he wants to be healed. Look how long he has been suffering. But then, coming to my senses, I realize this is Jesus whom I am questioning. He must know something about the deeper paralysis of this man’s soul that isn’t immediately obvious to me. After all these years, it appears this lame man has given up hope that he will ever be healed. Who could blame him? Why hold on to hope, only to be disappointed again and again?

The longer I ponder Jesus’ question to this man, the more I begin to feel a bit uneasy myself. He is not just asking this lame man if he wants to be healed. His question is directed to me and to you as well. After all these years of struggling with our various physical, psychological, and spiritual infirmities, have we somehow resigned ourselves to our broken condition, believing “this is as good as life gets”? Have we also given in to hopelessness, believing we won’t be healed? Most of the time, we aren’t even conscious of our resignation. We just accept our condition and bear it as best we can. Can you relate?

You may be wondering what I mean when I use the term healing. Simply stated, healing is the process of being made whole: body, soul, and spirit. It includes the restoration of our communion with God, our own integration, and reconciliation with those around us. This is consistent with most dictionary definitions, including the following from Merriam Webster’s:

1. to make sound or whole , to restore to health
2. to cause (an undesirable condition) to be overcome . . . to patch up (a breach or division)
3. to restore to original purity or integrity

These definitions are reflective of the way the word healing is used throughout the scriptures: to save, to cure, to make whole, to repair a breach, to restore communion, to give a therapeutic remedy, and so forth. The lame man of Bethesda’s most obvious need was for physical healing, but Jesus saw that he needed a much deeper healing. Before losing hope, he had a natural and God-given desire to be made whole and to have all his relationships restored. Though paralyzed with hopelessness, he could still acknowledge these buried desires.

No matter how much we have suppressed our desires, you and I also have a deep yearning to be healed. Why else do we go to doctors, dentists, therapists, priests, and ministers? Why else do so many people spend a significant portion of their time, money, and energy in pursuit of health and wholeness? According to the World Bank, health care currently consumes anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of our resources.

We pursue health and wholeness because God has built the desire for healing into the fabric of every human being. As Pope Benedict attests, healing is essential to our Christian faith. As Christians, we believe that Jesus came to earth for this purpose—to restore us to wholeness and to bring us back into full communion with the Father and each other.

This faith, revealed in sacred scriptures, has been faithfully proclaimed by the Church for two thousand years: “‘Heal the sick!’ The Church has received this charge from the Lord and strives to carry it out . . . She believes in the life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies” (CCC, 1509). Stop a minute and let those time-tested words sink in. Jesus, the incarnation of God our Healer, is the ultimate physician of our souls and bodies (Exodus 15:25–26). He not only forgives all our sins, but he also heals all our diseases, according to the Psalmist (Psalm 103:3).

Jesus’ healing miracles, past and present, are expressions of the Father’s tender compassion and intimate concern for each of us in our brokenness and suffering. They point to the ultimate healing he won for us on Calvary. Pope Benedict’s assertion sums it all up: “Healing . . . expresses the entire content of our redemption.” For the past two thousand years of Church history, all our worship, all our theology, and all our prayers are directed toward our restoration, as we are brought ever deeper into communion with the Holy Trinity.

Healing is a process, which will be completely fulfilled in heaven. But the process must begin now in each of our lives, as we face our various physical ailments, psychological difficulties, and spiritual afflictions. So the question Jesus asked of the man of Bethesda is directed to each one of us, “Do you want to be healed?” In some ways, we all resemble the lame man lying near the healing waters. As close as Jesus is, we can’t reach him by ourselves; we need his help. At the same time, Jesus will not heal us without our consent and cooperation. Many of us don’t realize we even need healing, or how deeply we need it. We mistakenly believe we are fine just the way we are. I was that person in my twenties and early thirties. Like the religious leaders of Jesus’ time, I thought I was fine and had no need of the Divine Physician (Mark 2:17). My pride blinded me, but Jesus opened my eyes to my tremendous need for healing. . . . 

Do you want to be healed? Is there any area of your life that you believe disqualifies you from receiving God’s grace or healing? If so, your God is not big enough, and Jesus’ Cross is not real enough. In one of my favorite passages of scripture, we are given this amazing promise from God: instead of your shame you will have a double portion of honor (Isaiah 61:7). Think of the most shameful or hopeless area of your life, past or present. That is the place you most need a Savior to set you free. That same area in your life, when it is healed, will bring God the greatest glory in your life. For many of you, this will also be the very place that God will equip you to administer healing to others. Do you believe what I am saying? . . . 

Isn’t this the promise of the Gospel? St. Paul assures us that because of Christ’s redemption and the Father’s providential love, “all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Look at a crucifix or an image of the crucified Jesus in your imagination. Do you believe that “we were healed by his wounds” (1 Peter 2:24)? None of his suffering is wasted or superfluous; all of it has been necessary for our salvation and healing. Now look at your own suffering and wounds and even your own sins. Can you see how every wound you have ever incurred and every sin you have ever committed, if submitted to God and redeemed, will be worked for your greater good and not just for your good? This grace extends to all the people your life touches directly and indirectly in the present and for generations to come. This confidence allows us to live with great freedom.

But notice, in Romans 8:28, freedom has a condition: that we love God and follow his calling and purpose for our life. Only when we surrender our wills and our lives to God can we find this freedom and joy. Jesus does the heavy lifting in bringing out our freedom, but we still have a part to play. Are you willing to take the next step on your journey of healing?
 

Schuchts, Bob. Be Healed: A Guide to Encountering the Powerful Love of Jesus in Your Life. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2014. 7–11, 191–92.
 

Bob Schuchts defines healing in terms of a restoration with our three primary relationships: with God, with ourselves, and with others. How would you define healing? What other words or ideas come to mind when you think of healing?

Schuchts describes the story of the healing of the lame man by the pools of Bethesda, especially focusing on Jesus’ question to him: “Do you want to be healed?” Why do you think we sometimes resist what’s good for us, i.e. our own healing? Do you want to be healed?

Schuchts concludes that healing is a process that will ultimately be complete in the fullness of the presence of God in Heaven, but that it’s a process that can begin even now. What are the next steps on your own journey of being healed by God? How can you connect your practice of fasting to these next steps?