Both of these stories – with one, as it were, enfolded in the other – reveal Jesus as the source of life and healing. As the First Reading says today, God: does not delight in the destruction of the living.
And it goes on to say:
For he created all things so that they might exist…the dominion of Hades is not on earth. For righteousness is immortal.
We have been made, the book of Wisdom tells us, to be in the image of God’s own nature:
God created us for incorruption and made us in the image of his own eternity… (Wis 2:23)
This is the goal of our lives: to know, to love and to share his life forever. Yet all of us, in some way or another, are constantly in need of God’s healing. Healing, health, wholeness, and holiness are, in English, all linked words. We pray for healing which will give us health in every aspect of our lives, and not just in our bodies. The realisation of full health is to become a whole person, where every part of me – spiritual, intellectual, social, psychological and physiological – functions as it ought and in perfect harmony within itself, with people around, and with the environment.
Part of our healing is in the wholeness of our communities, a wholeness which is based on truth, love, compassion and a deep sense of justice for all. And this, too, is holiness, because God is an integral part of the wholeness. He is recognised as the Creator, the Conserver and the Final Goal of all that I am and can be, of all that we are and can be.
“Based on content copyright of Sacred Space, used with permission.”