In Scripture, we hear many accounts of Christ bestowing miracles of healing upon people. In those stories, we see a suffering person, or that person’s friend or parent, reaching out to Jesus in faith and asking him for healing. Jesus is moved with deep compassion, love and mercy for them, reflecting his Sacred Heart’s devotion to humanity and his desire to heal. The Sacred Heart represents God’s boundless love, and these miracles reveal that love in action.
Jesus’ healing power is still at work today. He is still touching lives and bringing hope and restoration to those who need and ask for it.
Have you considered asking Jesus for healing through his Most Sacred Heart?
The first step on any healing journey is acknowledging the need for healing and then wanting it enough to do something about it. We must acknowledge the wound that we are suffering and bring that suffering into the light.
Jesus healed when people acknowledged their suffering, were willing to seek him out, and then did what he told them to do. Sometimes the means of healing included unusual circumstances. For example, having mud, made with Jesus’ saliva, placed on their eyelids, washing in a pool, picking up their mat and walking away, or simply believing and resolving to sin no more. The circumstances were different, but all were a result of His love.
In his book Behold This Heart, Father Thomas Dailey explains that, according to the Church Fathers, John’s Gospel reveals the Sacred Heart of Jesus as the fons vitae — the fountain of life and source of the Church, the Gospels, the sacraments and grace. A meaningful step, then, for any contemporary Christian seeking healing is to spiritually place oneself within the Sacred Heart of Jesus, or within the wound of his pierced side, and ask for his guidance and grace to receive the healing Jesus desires to give.
The path to healing will look different for every person. Just as uniquely as God has created each of us to reveal a particular image of him, so too is the road to his healing unique for each of us in restoring that image. Jesus died to save and redeem us. He wants to heal us. One way Jesus brings about healing today is through modern-day therapy.
Some see therapy as a way Jesus’ healing love is expressed through human wisdom and compassion. Therapy can help individuals process emotions and experiences, develop healthy coping strategies, cultivate self-awareness and growth and ultimately discover meaning and purpose.
A therapeutic relationship must be built on trust and safety, so that there is freedom to be vulnerable, to acknowledge past suffering and wounds, and to do what is necessary for healing. Gradually, those seeking healing become willing to bring their wounds out of the darkness of fear and shame into the light of hope. This is similar to how people sought Jesus for healing. In his compassionate heart, they encountered safety and experienced restoration. He restored each person’s dignity and identity, healing them physically, emotionally and spiritually. By God’s grace, therapy can likewise help restore a person to wholeness and well-being.
The therapist grounded in truth and guided by the Holy Spirit understands that he or she is merely an instrument through whom Jesus heals. He is the Divine Physician. Through the compassion, love and acceptance of his Sacred Heart, Jesus heals today just as surely as he healed in the stories of the Bible.
Loree Lippsmeyer, LCSW, is a therapist at the Catholic Counseling Agency and founder of SelfDiscoveryForCatholics.com. Through her Become Who You Are workshop and other resources, she helps Catholics discover who God created them to be. She and her husband, Brian, have four beloved children