We know for sure that Jesus was often astounded by people’s lack of faith. Strikingly, the man in today’s miracle was healed despite not expressing any explicit faith in Jesus. He was not healed against his will, but there is no evidence that he participated in the healing process. In Isaiah, God promises that the Messiah would do the very miracle that Jesus had just done: ‘Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped…the tongues of the dumb sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, the streams in the desert.’ The Holy Spirit is at work in all our lives to open our eyes and ears and loosen our tongues so that we can sing the praises of God for what he has done in Christ.
All of this is wonderful and true and for it, we praise and thank God. However, there can be no escaping that St Mark is recording for us an actual healing miracle, demonstrating Jesus’ power over sickness and disease. We need to consider the question of whether such miracles can happen today. Once again, we turn to the Catechism of the Catholic Church for its wisdom and guidance: ‘Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their cross in their turn. By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick’. What is this new outlook? It must be the new outlook of Christ who said to the Apostles: ‘Heal the sick!’ The Church has received this charge from the Lord himself and strives to carry it out praying for the sick.
