The Healing Jesus:

Yesterday and Today

By Leota Roesch

One day as Jesus was teaching... and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. [s]ome men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set (him) in his presence.But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus. (Luke 5: 17-19)

Purpose

This session for high school youth uses large and small group activities designed to help participants understand that Jesus continues to heal today just as he did in history. They will also come to understand the variety of healing needed in today’s world.

Component: Catechesis

Catechism of the Catholic Church: #739,798, 1210, 1500, 1502, 1506ff

U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults:#244,251-252, 254, 312

Session at a Glance

7:00 p.m. Welcome, Introduction to the Session, Opening Prayer

7:15 p.m.Overview of the Church’s Teaching on Miracles

Extend the Session: Film Exploration of Miracles (add 20-30 minutes)

7:30 p.m.Healing in Jesus’ Public Life

7:55 p.m.Continuing Jesus’ Healing Mission in the Church Today

8:15 p.m.Closing Prayer

8:25 p.m.Announcements

8:30 p.m.Finish!

Extend the Session: Film Exploration of Miracles (20-30 minutes)

Use media (books and movies) examples that speak to healing. Facilitating a discussion using these snippets of film and story can help the participants discuss the need for healing that is not necessarily a need for physical healing—although that may be included in the healing as it was in the Gospel.

In order to engage the participants fully in discussion, prepare four or five of the reading and/or DVD “samples.” Use Resource 2, Film Exploration of Miracles.

Divide the participants into groups of four for discussion and reporting and assign each group an example from the stories to discuss. Beforehand, decide who will report for each group.

After the story parts have been presented, ask:

  1. Who was healed? Who did the healing?
  2. What healing did the person experience?
  3. How was the healing was accomplished?
  4. Through whose power does the healing take place?

When you have discussed your example(s) and answered these questions, please prepare a report for our whole group.

Note to Leader: Question number 4’s purpose is to help the participants get at the idea that there is a figure in each story that could be called the “Christ figure” through whom the healing comes. None of the characters heals because of his or her own merits (except Aslan in the Chronicles) and s/he must rely on a power outside of themselves—just as those who heal today must do. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…” (Galatians 2:19, 20).

Materials Needed

  • Prayer focus: table, cloth, Bible, candle, matches or lightstick
  • Nametags
  • Newsprint, markers, and masking tape
  • Bibles, one for each participant (or at least one for every two participants)
  • Handout 1, Closing Prayer, one for each participant (copy double-sided)
  • Resource 1, The Healing Miracles of Jesus, for the session leader

Extend the Session

  • Resource 2, Film Exploration of Miracles
  • Book or books to be used marked for reading (see Book Options in Resource 2)
  • DVD player, LCD projector, speakers (for movie options)

Prepare in Advance

1.Prepare for the short presentation given in the session (see “Continuing Jesus’ Healing Mission”) on pages 8-10. You’ll want to be comfortable enough with the material so you do not read it to the participants.

2.Invitea participant to proclaim the Scripture reading in the closing prayer.

3.Set up the prayer space by covering a table with a cloth. On the table place the Bible, open to Luke 5, and a candle. Have matches or a lightstick nearby.

4.Prepare sheets of newsprint, one each with the following headings:

  • Healing Needed in Our Time by Individuals
  • Healing Needed in Our Time by Families
  • Healing Needed in Our Time by Nations
  • Healing Needed in Our Time by the Church (Universal or Local)

Keep these sheets covered until used in the session.

5.Set up tables and chairs for large and small group work. Set up tables for refreshments and sign-in. Have one or two people at the sign-in table with a check-in sheet and nametags. Hospitality is important: As the leader, do not use the gathering time before the session begins to take care of last-minute preparations. Spend the time moving among the participants, greeting and speaking with them.

Session Outline

Welcome (2 minutes)

Welcome the participants introduce yourself and any other adults who will be assisting you. If the participants do not yet know each other by first names, do a warm up activity to help them remember each other and the adults present.

Introduction (3 minutes)

Introduce the session by saying:

If we are attentive listeners to the Sunday Gospel proclamation at Mass, we will have heard, over the course of the three-year liturgical cycle, many of the stories of Jesus’ healing people during his public ministry. Also, we may have experienced or learned about the two Sacraments of Healing, Anointing of the Sick and Reconciliation.

We may think that Jesus only healed physically sick people and that he did that through miracles only; we may also not be ready to celebrate the Sacraments of Healing. Yet, if we admit it, there is some sickness in all of us that needs healing. Tonight we will explore how Jesus continues to heal the People of God in our own time.

Opening Prayer (5 minutes)

Invite the participants to gather at the prayer space. Lead the participants through a few breathing exercises, in order to prepare them for prayer:

Please clear the space in front of you; place all of your materials on the floor by you. Sitting up straight and breathing deeply prepares us to pray. Place your feet flat on the floor and place your hands on your lap. Right now you may be thinking of something that happened at school or home today; you may be distracted by homework or other things. You may hear sounds that distract you. For the moment, we are going to put that all aside and get ready for prayer. Let us take a few cleansing breaths to help get us ready for prayer.

Continue encouraging the deep breathing until there is silence in the space and breathing becomes more relaxed. Invite a volunteer to light the candle.

Gather

Prayer Leader:(begin with the Sign of the Cross)

Healing God, We thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus, whose stories of healing others bring us hope. As we listen to your Son’s words about the life he wishes for us—a life that is refreshing and peaceful, free of fear, pain, worry, concern, or anything else that could disturb us—may we learn to be people of hope and healing for others. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Listen

Invite the reader to proclaim Matthew 11:25-30. Allow a few moments of silence after the reading.

Respond

Reader:

Our response to each prayer is: Lord, have mercy.

May our God strengthen all who need healing through the prayers of his faithful people, we pray. Lord, have mercy.

May our God free from harm all who are endangered in any way, we pray. Lord, have mercy.

May our God free us all from sin and temptation, we pray. Lord, have mercy.

May our God relieve the sufferings of all who call upon him and his holy ones, we pray. Lord, have mercy.

Go Forth

Prayer Leader:

Good and Gracious God,

You chose to send your Son to share our human nature, to redeem all people, and to heal the world. Look with compassion on all of your people who may be suffering in any way and support them with your power, comfort them with your protection, and give them the strength to fight against evil. We ask this through your son, Jesus, who is lord forever and ever. Amen.

(Adapted from prayers from the “Pastoral Care of the Sick”)

When the prayer is finished, ask the participants to return to their tables and chairs to re-focus attention to the next part of the evening.

Healing in Jesus’ Public Life (45 minutes)

Step 1:(8 minutes) Introduce this part of the session on Jesus’ healing by drawing out the need for healing in Jesus’ time.

Before we look at how Jesus healed people in his time and how he continues that healing in our time, let us look at some of the things that he healed people from during his public ministry.

Invite the participants to brainstorm silently for a few moments asking them to think about the Gospel stories where Jesus’ healed people. When you sense they are ready to share, ask them share what they remember from the Scripture. (If necessary, allow them to use their Bibles to skim through the four Gospels to jog their memories.)

As they share, write the “sicknesses” they mention on a sheet of newsprint. They may mention some or all of the following:

  • Lepers cleansed
  • Blind made to see
  • Lame made to walk
  • Other physical ills healed (the woman with the continuous blood flow, the healing of Malchus’ ear in the garden, healing the Centurion’s servant, the healing at the pool of Bethesda, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, etc.)

If they do not mention other types of healings, be prepared to remind them of:

  • Giving back physical life: Jairus’ daughter, Lazarus, the widow’s son
  • Healing the spirit: “Get up/Go your sins are forgiven.” “Fear not.” “Do not be afraid.” (Calming the storm, calming those in the upper room after the crucifixion, granting of peace [John 14: 27]; the Samaritan woman at the well, the good thief on the cross, curing the boy possessed by demons, etc.)

Do you see any commonalities in these stories of Jesus’ healing of people? What are they? (Allow a few moments for general comments.)

Step 2:(30 minutes)Use the story of the curing of the paralytic to help the participants understand how and why Jesus healed people. Read the story from the Bible (Luke 5:17–26, NAB) as outlined.

Read Luke 5:17-19, then say:

It took great confidence in Christ for the friends of a crippled man to make a hole in the roof of the place where Jesus was, so they could lower him down to be cured. Not to mention the physical difficulties in getting him there. One can imagine the surprise, and perhaps the anger of the people inside at this interruption to Christ's teaching. The Teacher didn't rebuke them though, and instead helped the crippled man.

Sometimes the persistence of the sick person (or in this case, his friends) was what achieved divine assistance. When a woman who had suffered from hemorrhage for a long time joined the crowd along with other followers, and then kept touching the hem of The Lord's robe and asking for help, he finally noticed her and made her well.

Read Luke 5:20, then say:

Healing also requires a request for help—whether the sick person asks for it him/herself or someone else’s request in faith is heard. Thus, we have fathers and mothers asking for healing for their children. We hear individuals who are blind ask for healing: “What do you wish?” “That I might see.” We have officials asking for healing for their servants, etc.

Faith—someone's faith—is one important ingredient in healing. Lack of faith in Jesus' hometown of Nazareth resulted in few healings (Matthew 13:58; Mark 6:5-6). Here it is the faith of his friends that suffices for Jesus to heal.

“If they didn't believe their friend would be healed, they never would have carried out this desperate act. They would have turned around and carried him home with the promise, ‘We'll try again soon.’ Yes, those faces looking down do believe, and believe very greatly in the Master's power. And then there is the paralyzed man himself. Unless he is completely without any motor control whatsoever, he would have protested this craziness to his friends and insisted they take him home to avoid embarrassment—unless he, too, believes.”[1]

Can you think of times when Jesus affirmed the faith of those who come for healing? (Allow a few moments for responses.)

Yes, Jesus comments on the faith of the Roman Centurion (Matthew 8:5-13), of the blind man in Mark’s Gospel (10:52 and Luke 18:42), of the woman with the hemorrhage: “If I but touch his the hem of his garment” (Mark 5:34), of the Samaritan leper (Luke 17:19); of the woman who washed Jesus’ feet in the house of the Pharisee (Luke 17:50), etc.

Read Luke 5:21-24, then say:

The other thing we notice from how Jesus heals is how he makes use of common gestures and elements in his healing. We see him touching, breathing on, laying hands on, applying mud, spittle, water, etc. These simple gestures connect with the person being healed and invite trust in Jesus to do what he said he would do.

We notice the healing prayers Jesus recites are always simple in content, yet profoundly moving: “Go, your sins are forgiven.” “Rise, and sin no more.” “Talitha cumi.” “This day you shall be with me in paradise.”

Read Luke 5:25, then say:

Some sort of a response is also expected from the person being healed, as we see in the story of this paralytic in Luke’s Gospel. The man, who can now walk again, hears what may seem like a strange command, “Sin no more.” That is the response required of him.

Read Luke 5:26, then say:

Healing is part of a larger tradition within Scripture, and the relationship between healing and sickness is not confined to physical ills. In fact, Jesus’ healing of people tells us more about the power of God at work in our lives than it does about health. These episodes point to growth in wholeness and holiness because of the healing touch of the Lord. Healing seems to be tied up with turning oneself more completely to the Lord.

Step 3: (7 minutes) Invite the participants to consider why Jesus healed people in the Gospel stories.

Please take a few moments to reflect on why you think Jesus’ healed people. Was it necessary for his mission? Could he have redeemed us without healing anyone? What do you think?

For the most part, Jesus has compassion for those he heals and for those who ask for healing on their behalf. He models for us an essential quality in the life of his followers.

The Gospels also indicate another reason for healing. Healings provide a context for Jesus’ teaching and an opportunity for the observers or onlookers to praise God for the wonderful signs, as we just heard in the story from Mark’s Gospel. For individuals healed by the Lord, the miracle often leads to a response of discipleship. In these instances, the healings become a variation of the Gospel’s call episodes (Mark 1:16-20) as those restored to wholeness follow Jesus in faith.

“Jesus seems more concerned about the faith of individuals than their physical condition. In fact, wholeness has more to do with fidelity to God than it does with health. The real sickness that needs Jesus’ healing touch is that of sin, isolation, marginalization, anxiety and lack of peace. The fullness of life that Jesus brings is the opposite: authenticity, community, integration, wholeness and peace. Therefore, the miracle tradition always asks us to ponder the deeper questions implied in the narrative and to identify real, rather than obvious, needs in ourselves and others. This approach was certainly the focus of Jesus’ ministry and it may offer us insight about our own responses as people of faith.”[2]

Continuing Jesus’ Healing Mission in the Church Today (30 minutes)

Direct the participants to the newsprint sheets you prepared in advance of the session:

  • Healing Needed in Our Time by Individuals
  • Healing Needed in Our Time by Families
  • Healing Needed in Our Time by Nations
  • Healing Needed in Our Time by the Church (Universal or Local)

Divide the participants into four groups and assign one heading to each group. Give these directions:

Brainstorm the types of healing that are needed in the area of life that your group has been assigned.

Give one example in each area so that the participants understand what is needed (e.g., Individuals—healing from an illness; Families—healing from alcoholism, divorce; Nations—healing from poverty, destruction of war; Church—healing from scandal, healing from lack of faith).

When each group is done brainstorming, ask them to write their responses on the proper page displayed in the room.

Note to Leader: In terms of individuals and families, the participants may list some very difficult things that need healing—be prepared. If they list only “antiseptic” issues, also be prepared to name those that may be more difficult.