Approaches to Physical Healing

In the realm of physical restoration, doctors practice two primary approaches in medicine: therapeutic medicine (curative) and prophylactic medicine (preventive). Both of these approaches to medicine treats diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and arthritis in order to restore a person’s health, or at least to restore the patient to an optimum state of health. Prophylactic medicine seeks to prevent disease. Doctors treat many people today for elevated cholesterol and hypertension using both diet and medicines. They know that if no preventive measures are taken and if these conditions are allowed to persist, these people will be at high risk for developing cardiovascular disease and strokes.

Just as doctors use these two approaches to treat their patients, we need to take this two-pronged approach when we pray for healing. Unfortunately, most people wait until they are sick with a disease before they pray for healing. It seldom occurs to them to pray before the onset of the disease for prevention or protection against the disease.

Both curative and preventive healing are maximally available to us in the Eucharist. We can attend Mass and receive Communion to prevent sickness as well as to heal sickness, but only when the requisite faith is present. This means we can ask the Lord through the Holy Eucharist to protect us from cancer, arthritis, diabetes, back problems, accidental injury, or any one of a myriad of other physical diseases or problems.

At the same time, we can ask the Lord to protect us from emotional or spiritual problems. Married couples should make it a point to pray for a good, strong marriage from their honeymoon on, instead of waiting until a problem has arisen or until their marriage has fallen apart. Peter encourages married couples to be partners in inheriting the precious “gift of life” (1 Pt 3:7), and St. Paul urges them to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 5:21, NIV). Husbands and wives should be partners together in Christ, praying together at home, attending Mass and receiving Communion together, while together asking Jesus for prevention of any rupture in their marital love. We need the strength of Christ (see Philippians 4:13) in order to avoid future failures. We have to be strengthened to consistently live a life of virtue.

Unlike all the other sacraments, the sacrament of the Eucharist requires that we physically consume the sacred species as food. But as I have noted elsewhere, it is also possible to make a “spiritual communion.” Traditionally, spiritual communion is understood as the fervent desire to receive the Eucharist.

This fervent desire should normally precede the reception of the sacrament, and it should express itself in attitudes of faith and love throughout the day after having received Communion. Receiving Communion should never be simply an external or routine action; it must penetrate the heart and mind so that its graces are fully realized in the worshiper.

“Spiritual communion” may also be practiced by those who are unable to approach the Eucharist worthily, or are impeded from so doing, such as those waiting to be received into the Church or those who live in an area where there is no possibility of attending Mass. They can experience a “spiritual communion” by making an act of faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, together with an intense act of love reaffirming their yearning desire to receive him in the Eucharist. According to St. Alphonsus Liguori, this is a very powerful form of prayer, though it is less effective than physical Communion.

However, most people do have the ability to attend Mass and receive sacramental Communion, thereby availing themseles of the spiritual power of the sacrament. It is important to remember this life-conferring power does not come primarily from the assimilation of the chemically dissolved substance of the eucharistic elements. It comes from the presence of the Divine Person, who remains physically present (until the host is dissolved and no longer has the chemical structure of bread) in our beings for perhaps ten to fifteen minutes. Even when there is no longer the real physical presence of Jesus, there remains a real spiritual presence of Christ. The material elements, dissolved by our digestive function, are physically assimilated, just as any food is physically assimilated. Spiritually, however, we ‘assimilate” Christ to a greater or lesser degree, depending on our devotion – namely, how much our faith and love are activated during and after receiving Communion.

Why do I emphasize this spiritual assimilation of the Divine Person of Jesus so much? It is important because Jesus gives us so much through our personal contact with him in the Eucharist. St. Paul speaks about the nine segments of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV): “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” St. Thomas Aquinas points out the first three – love, joy, peace – are the most important. It is precisely these three that are conferred upon us in our physical contact with Jesus in the Eucharist.

In John 15:9, Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: abide in my love” (RSV, emphasis added). He does not simply say, “Abide in love.” In John 15:11 (NAB), he says, “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete” (emphasis added). He speaks about his joy, not merely some joyful emotional experience. In John 14:27, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (NAB, emphasis added). Once again he does not say, “I give you peace.” He says, “My peace I give you.” Jesus wants us to experience love, joy, and peace, not as some vague emotions but as genuine fruit of the presence of his Holy Spirit within us. Moreover, he wants to fruit of the Spirit to exercise its multiple function of shaping our patterns of behavior.

The ongoing presence of the Divine Person in our being is proportionate to our faith. In Matthew 8:13, NAB, Jesus said, “…as you have believed, let it be done for you.” In Mark 8:22-26, we read the story about a blind man in Bethsaida whom Jesus healed. When Jesus and his disciples arrived in Bethsaida, the people of the village brought a blind man to Jesus and begged Jesus to touch him. Jesus led the blind man outside the village, put spittle on his eyes, and laid his hands on him. Jesus then asked him, “Do you see anything?” The blind man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.” It was obvious the man could not see clearly. lt was as though he still had cataracts on his eyes and could see only vaguely. Jesus had worked a miracle, but it was not complete. Jesus then laid his hands on him a second time. This time the man’s sight was completely restored.

Why was he not completely healed the first time? Mark does not give us a reason. But Mark tells us that the townspoeple brought the blind man to Jesus so he would touch him. This is a different scenario from the other accounts of healing where the ailing persons themselves would cry out to Jesus so he would touch them and heal them. We might speculate, therefore that the blind man was not entirely receptive to being healed and thus lacked, at first, the faith needed to be totally healed. Might this explain why it was a two-step healing?

Whatever the case, both the element of receptivity and the question of faith are important. Jesus said, “…as you have believed, let ut be done for you” (Mt 8:13, NAB). He did nto say, “Let it be done for you according to my divine power.” There is nothing missing, of course, in Jesus’ divine power. But people do have limited degrees of faith and, consequently, experience limited degrees of healing.

Concomitantly, people have limited degrees of love, and this too can determine whether a person will experience God’s healing action in his or her life. Sometimes people want healing just for selfish reasons: they do not want to be healed to give glory to God but to be free from pain. They pray selfishly, asking with wrong motives. As St. James says, “You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (Jas 4:3, NBA). They are not interceding for good health in order to be able to work more effectively for the Lord. They just want freedom from pain. These people are focused on themselves. God loves them with all their limitations and works with them where they are. Nonetheless, their selfish motives are limiting Jesus’ healing power in them.

This excerpt is from the book The Healing Power of the Eucharist, by John H. Hampsch, C.M.F., originally published by Servant Books, an imprint of St. Anthony Messenger Press. This and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.