Healing, Christian

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HEALING, CHRISTIAN

The Christian message of salvation presents sickness as connected with sin, if not personal sin (cf. Jn 9.2–3), at any rate with the original Fall. Hence arises the question of a religious approach to its cure. In fact, Christians, besides seeking recovery by means of medical care, have always believed in the help of prayer and religious blessings, or in Christian healing.

History. In the Old Testament the cure of sickness was also sought in prayer and sacrifice. Sick persons seek the blessing of priests or Prophets and implore healing as a grace. Miraculous cures are mentioned in 1 Kgs 17.17–24 (the son of the widow of Sarephta called back to life by Elijah), 2 Kgs 4.18–37 (Elisha raising the son of the Sunamite woman), and 2 Kings ch. 5 (Elisha curing Naaman of his leprosy). Sickness is often attributed to the devil. Together with sin and the reign of the devil it is to be excluded from the last messianic times.

In the New Testament Christ's miraculous healing of the sick is one of the signs that the last messianic times have come (cf. Mt 11.4–5). Not only He Himself but the Apostles also heal the sick (Mt 10.1), sometimes by anointing them (Mk 6.13). Faith or trust on the part of the sick is required as a condition for the cure; it is not its cause (cf. Mt 13.58).

In the nascent Church, the charism of healing shows itself in the miraculous cures wrought by the Apostles (Acts 3.1–16; 8.7; 9.32–42). St. Paul mentions it in his list of charisms (1 Cor 12.9, 28, 30). Besides, there is mentioned in Js 5.14–16 an Anointing of the Sick by the presbyters not only for a bodily cure but also for a spiritual effect (forgiveness of sins). The Church later recognized here the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.

In the early centuries St. James's text is invoked to justify both a liturgical anointing of the sick by bishops or priests for spiritual and corporal healing alike (the Sacrament) and a private anointing by the sick person himself or others mainly for recovery (a sacramental; cf. H. Denzinger, Enchiridion symolorum, ed. A. Schönmetzer 216). The practice of praying for recovery from sickness in private or liturgical prayer is found throughout the Christian centuries. The Church sanctioned prayers and blessings against sickness, whether preventive or curative, and also recourse to patron saints against particular diseases. Here, however, superstitious deviations were not always avoided.

When the doctrine of the Sacraments became explicit in the awareness of the Church (11th–12th centuries), the Anointing of the Sick was counted among the seven Sacraments, and bodily healing came to be considered as its subordinate and conditional effect (cf. Enchiridion symolorum, 1696).

The presence of the charism of healing in the Church was attested in the miraculous cures effected by saints (modern critical hagiography admits many as authentic). The norms for canonization of saints fixed by Benedict XIV required authentic miracles, usually cures, as signs from heaven confirming their heroic virtue. Another category of miraculous cures are the ones that occur at places of pilgrimage, those in honor of Our Lady in particular, such as lourdes. The Church after due examination recognizes some of these cures as genuine miracles. Although miraculous cures of this kind are linked to faith, they are not to be confused with the "faith healing" that refuses ordinary means of medical treatment and therapy.

Catholic theology accepting the reality that in human beings body, soul, and spirit constantly interact encourages interdisciplinary cooperation between medical professionals, psychologists, and clergy in the care of individual patients. Most healing is a process involving a time and sequence known only to God. It calls for a community of persons, professional and lay, willing to spend time with those who suffer and love them into wholeness, using the best medical and spiritual means available.

Healing and the Sacraments. The renaming and ritual revision of two important channels of healing, the Sacraments of Reconciliation and of Anointing proposed by the Second Vatican Council, highlight Christ's will for all to become whole in body and spirit. In administering the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the priest has new opportunities to spend time with the penitent, discovering with the help of the Holy Spirit the root causes of sin. He is thus able to encourage penitents to realize the spiritual and emotional healing available to them as they enter into the forgiving love of Jesus and the Father. The Sacrament of Anointing in its new format places more emphasis on the building of faith for direct physical healing in the sick person, as is clear from its ritual formula: "May the Lord, who frees you from sin, save you and raise you up." By making this Sacrament available to persons other than those in imminent danger of death, the Church reaffirms its belief in the restorative power of her anointing, in accordance with Js 5.14–16.

Throughout the centuries the healing Sacrament par excellence has been the Eucharist, an occasion for Christians to enter into greater wholeness on all levels, spiritual, emotional, and physical. Special Masses for healing, sometimes combined with the Sacrament of Anointing for the sick, are held to call the attention of the faithful to the healing power of the Eucharistic Liturgy. Christian healing, which finds its culmination in the Eucharistic celebration of a community gathered in love and prayer, extends beyond personal concerns for bodily and spiritual fulfillment: it calls Christians to work and prayer for the unity of the Body of Christ and the healing of society.

Church-related health services pledge themselves to minister on all levels to the sick and disabled, providing a witness of Gospel values through an environment of love and respect for human dignity, especially important in the experience of death. Entered into with faith and joyful acceptance when it is ultimately seen to be the will of God, a Christian death, graced by the Sacraments, is the most complete healing of all, an entrance into the eternal fullness of life won for all Christians by Christ on Calvary.

In conclusion it should be emphasized that belief in Christian healing does not dispense one from having recourse to medical care. Religious factors do not replace medical care; they help for recovery, not (as medicine does) by directly acting on the level of biological or chemical or physiological realities, but by strengthening the grace life of the sick person or by miracle.

See Also: anointing; anointing of the sick, i (theology of); anointing of the sick, ii (liturgy of).

Bibliography: j. giblet and p. grelot, "Maladie-guérison," Vocabulaire de théologie biblique, ed. x. lÉon-dufour et al. (Paris 1962) 566–570. Le Christ et les malades (Cahiers de la vie spirituelle 6; Paris 1945). z. alszeghy, "L'effeto corporale dell'estrema unzione," Gregorianum 38 (1957) 385–405. m. kelsey, Healing and Christianity (New York 1973). f. macnutt, Healing (Notre Dame, IN 1974); Power to Heal (Notre Dame, IN 1977). j. sanford, Healing and Wholeness (New York 1977).