The Ultimate Healing that Awaits Us

As we have already seen, health-restoring vitality is available through the mutual union of Holy Communion. At the same time, Jesus promises us the most perfect form of healing through the Eucharist with the words, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day: (Jn 6:54, NAB, emphasis added).

What exactly will happen on that last day? When Jesus comes again, the dead will rise: “For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thes 4:16, NAB). Those who area alive when Jesus comes again will experience the rapture: “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thes 4:17, NAB).

In one sense, the most perfect form of healing is death. When it is time for us to go, death acts as a healing because it frees us from pain and suffering. For this reason, we should be thankful for death. Still, for the faith-filled person, there is a healing beyond death that is even better than death, namely the resurrection of the body. As we read in John 5:28-29 (NAB): “Do not be amazed at this, because of the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.”

At the time of the second coming of Christ, the disembodied souls of the just, who are already enjoying the presence of God in heaven, will be joined with their newly glorified bodies now resurrected to full life, and the souls of the reprobate, suffering in hell, will be joined with their bodies. The bodies and souls of the just will revel in eternal glory, while the bodies and souls of the reprobate will suffer eternal damnation.

Thus, the resurrection of the body for those who are saved offers the ultimate, most perfect form of healing. And this amazing and supreme form of healing by way of the resurrection and glorification of the bodies of just persons is what Jesus promises to those who receive his own glorified body in Holy Communion: “I will raise him on the last day.”

As St. Thomas Aquinas pointed out, all other healings are implicitly contained in this ultimate healing that will occur at the time of the resurrection of the body. At that time, our bodies will be just like Jesus’ glorified body. In Philippians 3:20-21 (NAB), St. Paul assured us: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself.”

Elsewhere St. Paul elaborates on the charges that await us: “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one” (1 Cor 15:42-44, NAB). This is the highest and ultimate form of healing, and Jesus speaks of it in the context of reward for receiving him in Communion.

What will our glorified bodies be like? In St. Paul’s descriptions in various passages of what awaits the redeemed, four essential qualities of the resurrected body seem to emerge: agility, clarity subtlety, and impassability.

Agility is the ability to move with the speed of thought, One form of this is the rapture. “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, console one another with these words” (1 Thes 4:17-18, NAB). We will be able to move immediately anywhere we want: “In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble: (Wis 3:7, NAB). If we want to see the far side of the moon, we just have to think about it and we are there. Jesus manifested this quality when he moved throughout the Holy Land (see Matthew 18:7-10 and Luke 24:31) in the few days after his resurrection with his glorified body, meeting with his apostles here and there, and at his ascension (see Acts 1:9).

Clarity means brilliance, effulgence, beauty, and radiance, as Jesus manifested in his transfiguration. Matthew 17:2 tells us that Jesus” was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.” Mark 9:3 describes the transfiguration of Jesus in this way: “And his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.” Our bodies will be fantastically beautiful.

Subtlety means that our bodies will truly be physical bodies, but they will act in a spiritual manner. Just as Jesus in his glorified body walked into the Upper Room through locked doors (see John 20:19), we will be able to walk through walls. With our glorified body, if someone gets in our way, we will be able to walk right through them instead of walking around them!

Impassability refers to the inability to suffer pain or to suffer from defects. We will be totally free from wrinkles bulges, pain, fatigue, grief, anguish and depression. St. John reminds us, “They will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rv 7:16-17). Later he assures us, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away” (Rv 21:4, NAB).

Indeed, this is true healing! When Jesus draws a parallel between his resurrection and our own resurrected bodies, he does so in the context of the Eucharist. Why did he make this close connection between the Eucharist and this ultimate healing that awaits us? The reason is simple. It is the glorified body of Christ that we receive in the Eucharist. The degree to which we have eucharistic devotion and practice is the degree to which we will have healing, not only in this life but also in the next life, when the fullest degree of healing awaits us. Do we ever think of that when we receive Communion?

As we participate more and more faithfully in the Eucharist, we can anticipate a future having bodies full of vitality, health, strength, and immunity. Our physical bodies, when nourished by Jesus’ own body in eucharistic form, will be the fulfillment of Jesus’ own promise that those who eat his Body and drink his Blood will have their own bodies raised on the last day (see John 6:53-54).

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.