“In this life you will have trouble, but I have overcome the world.” (Jn. 16:33) It is useful to consider the connections between sickness and sin when we hear about Jesus’ miracles of healing. Physical healing enables us to live our lives the way we were meant to. So long as we are suffering from some kind of illness, it is as though we are prevented from being fully alive – captive in some ways. Sin is not just a spiritual illness that prevents us from living our lives freely and completely, it is also really connected to physical death. The remedies, or the medicine that brings healing is certainly helped by science, but more importantly has to do with God’s mercy. Any sickness that we experience, be it physical or spiritual – any suffering that plagues us – can become an occasion to turn our hearts more completely towards God and receive his mercy and healing. Perhaps that is why tears represent the most effective means of healing. So long as those tears are from the heart and directed to God’s mercy, we are then in a position to receive the most essential medicine: God’s merciful love.
Fr. Francis Therese Krautter csj