Christian Art | Healing Miracles Of Jesus
Mark 1: 29-39 – Week 1 Ordinary Time, Wednesday (Audio Bible KJV, Spoken Word)
29 And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
30 But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.
31 And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.
32 And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.
33 And all the city was gathered together at the door.
34 And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.
35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
36 And Simon and they that were with him followed after him.
37 And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.
38 And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.
39 And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.
Through these verses, we see Jesus healing Simon’s mother in her home, immediately restoring her to wellbeing, so that she is able to serve life. Here Jesus heals in an intimate, domestic environment, within the home. The verses ask us to think of our families and our nearest and dearest ones.
Jesus then offers his service to everyone. The whole city gathers around the house. For the sick and those possessed, who would normally be excluded from Jewish life, it is as if a general amnesty has been extended, a spirit of jubilee. Now there is no discrimination. All are free to come to Jesus. This must have been an incredibly emotional experience for those who had been outcast for so long – not just like going to a doctor, but rather having their whole social lives restored to them, perhaps when they had given up hope.
The sheer wonder of Jesus is, through his healing miracles, made easily apparent to all. No remarkable understanding is needed for people to know that something extraordinary is happening. Jesus’ great love, his mission, is accessible for all. We sense a great springing into being of new life as the people respond, a great quickening in which the seeds of a new consciousness can be sown.
Through prayer, Jesus gives an example of how we should place ourselves in communion with God. Jesus seeks a place alone, without distraction. There his prayer is one of perfect praise and thanksgiving, because he is the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased. Through Jesus, we too are able to call God our Father, and to present our lives to God, our petitions, our thanks, our praise. Through prayer, Jesus attunes himself to his work of redemption and self-sacrifice.
‘You write: “To pray is to talk with God. But about what?” About what? About him, about yourself: joys, sorrows, successes and failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petitions and love and reparation. In a word: get to know him and get to know yourself: “to get acquainted!”’ St Josemaria Escriva
Concluding Prayer
God our Saviour,
through the grace of baptism
you made us childen of light.
Hear our prayer that we may always walk in that lght
and work for truth as your witness before men.
We make our prayer through our Lord.
Audio Bible KJV | Endnotes
Christian Faith | Healing Miracles Of Jesus
In Mark 1:29-39, we see Jesus performing healing miracles, which are an essential aspect of the Christian faith. Miracles demonstrate Jesus’ power and compassion, and they reveal Jesus’ divine nature as the Son of God.
In this passage, Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law, who was sick with a fever. Jesus then heals many others who were sick and possessed by demons. The healing miracles show that Jesus has authority over illness and evil spirits.
Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus performing many healing miracles. Matthew 9:35 teaches us: ‘Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.’ Similarly, Luke 4:40 teaches: ‘Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.’
The healing miracles of Jesus are not just physical healings but also spiritual healings. In Mark 2:1-12, Jesus heals a paralytic man, and before Jesus heals the paralytic man physically, Jesus forgives his sins, demonstrating that spiritual healing is just as important as physical healing. This as other miracles demonstrates that Jesus uniquely has the power to forgive sins and reconcile us to God.
Jesus’ healing miracles have inspired Christian teaching throughout history. Saint Augustine, of the 4th Century, believed that the healing miracles of Jesus were signs of Jesus’ divinity. Saint Augustine wrote: ‘In healing the sick and raising the dead, [Jesus] showed that he was not only man but also God.’
Similarly, John Calvin, Protestant theologian of the 16th Century, believed that the healing miracles of Jesus were meant to point people to the Gospel. Calvin wrote: ‘The miracles which Christ performed were intended to be seals of his doctrine, and to confirm the faith of those who heard him.’
Jesus’ healing miracles continue to be a source of inspiration and comfort for Christians today. They remind us that Jesus is not just a historical figure but a living and active Saviour who cares for our physical and spiritual well-being.
Pope Francis has frequently spoken about the healing miracles of Jesus and their significance for the Christian faith. In his 2017 World Day of the Sick message, Pope Francis emphasized the importance of prayer and the sacraments in healing both physical and spiritual ailments. Pope Francis said: ‘In prayer, we can bring before the Lord our illnesses, sufferings and wounds, and implore his comfort and help. The sacraments of the Church also give us the grace we need to overcome sickness and to live with hope and joy.’
Pope Francis has also emphasized the importance of reaching out to those who are sick and suffering, following the example of Jesus. In his 2021 World Day of the Sick message, Pope Francis called for greater solidarity with those who are suffering, saying: ‘May we draw from the Virgin Mary, Health of the Sick, the comfort and strength we need to bring the love of God and our closeness to our sick brothers and sisters, especially those most in need.’
Pope Francis has also emphasized the importance of faith in the healing process, both physical and spiritual. He has spoken about the need to have trust and confidence in God’s love and mercy, even in the face of suffering and illness. In his 2018 World Day of the Sick message, Pope Francis said: ‘The experience of sickness makes us realize our own vulnerability and our need to entrust ourselves to God, who is our rock and our salvation.’
Jesus teaches this invitation to deeper prayer. Jesus calls us to pray from the heart, in humility and intimacy with the Father. Take a moment to quiet your mind and open your heart. I invite the Holy Spirit to guide my thoughts. How can my prayer life be more in tune with God’s will?
We process. Glass exhibition cases, old reliquaries. A forearm here; here a nun’s fingertip. In chapel, at a glance, there are the usual faces. But they all stand to attention. Jonathan breaks from the procession to – fire the organ with oomph and dignity: Ride on! ride on in majesty! The angel-squadrons of the sky look down with sad and wondering eyes to see the approaching sacrifice. When we’ve done the readings, the Arch holds that tree in his hands to deliver the homily. He rocks quietly on his feet, some few seconds, as if balance defeated it. A way you might affect as the Spirit moves… Copying. Then he says: ‘Our palm fronds may seem to us today rather dry. I mean this not in a literal sense, but by the standards of those who originally lined the roadways in order to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, as they proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, who would be clambering up and ripping their palm branches fresh from off the trees. I think perhaps also our faith is somewhat distant from that of the people there on that highroad into Jerusalem, and something of our sense of the meaning has shifted in vividness from what it was then. And of course the expectation of all those many people is markedly different, but in many important respects the same. There are the same essential qualities to all our faith in God, which springs complete from our humanity, and that is one and the same in value for all of us, and time is consistent on this point. So then, let us renew the fullness of Catholic faith, and let us ask the Lord’s blessing as we embark upon our Holy Week. ‘Our Lord enters into Jerusalem in order to refresh us. He is to die in order that we may have life. There is a living reality here, both spiritual and as entangled in the joy of our daily living. We have Ladies’ Day where I grew up. They still have it, and they close the roads off, and little children parade, dressed-up like spring brides. When I was a boy, there was a May Day festival, and there was a May pole on the field, with the people dancing, like Morris dancers might be one way of visualizing this if you’ve never seen it, with their ribbons tied onto the top of the May pole, and they would weave around each other, dressing the pole, which is what we called it. It was like a dance with red and white and blue ribbons all hung off of the top of the May pole, which stood there all year, only like a telegraph pole, but it was concreted in, and then there was a slide, and swings – one baby-swing and two you could have a go at – terrible health and safety but that’s what it was in those days. ‘There was a round-a-bout – we used to run it round and round to try to get it off its central axis. It were rusty as anything and creaked like mad – on concrete. And climb up where it was all greased up at the top. Ruth, who was big as the next four of us, used to sit there sucking on the lollipops we nicked for her from Raddies, and she’d direct matters. We were trying to destroy it, and get it to dislodge from its central axis, and fly away – roll off into that farmer’s field, which he only ever kept for silage, but we never succeeded. There was a car someone had left there so we spent forever smashing that up, until someone who lived in one of the houses there took exception to our doing that, so he put thick grease under the door handles and gave us a right talking to. ‘It would only be a few stands, hot-dogs and things like that. The man selling the hot dogs would have his records on full blast. There’d be a couple of set-up stalls. Air-rifles – that sort of thing. But we all had them, and we all went shooting, of course, if not with twelve bores then with smaller gauge. Or pay a pound – I have no idea how much it was in actual fact then – it might have only been a few pennies – and we’d get all that time smashing up the crockery the man would put up for us to smash on the dressers. That was my particular favourite thing to do at these festivals, by the way, in case you were wondering. You got a little bucket of so many cricket balls. ‘I dread to think what went into those hot dogs. Probably EE rules would forbid it now. But it was a fair mix in those days. A lot of young people then were C of E. We’ve done a lot to hang onto our young people, which is a tremendous encouragement when you consider how things are, while in recent decades the Church of England hasn’t been so successful. People still want it on feast days and what are essentially now civic celebrations. It’s strange to see, though, how all the little stands there people have are run by the police and people like that along those lines. There’s no May pole. That was a sort of faith that ran and ran beneath all the theoreticals of it in the 1960s and the 1970s and into the 1980s. The May pole isn’t there now in the particular place I’m thinking of. Considering May poles were officially suppressed hundreds of years ago – as a part of the protestant reformation. One or two of you are probably thinking I’m remembering things from that time! ‘I should have liked to say that those processionals were so hardwired into us, that even after the last thirty years, when I became a bishop, they are still with us. They were […]
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