As some of our parishioners know, I’ve been taking online classes this year through the Encounter School of Ministry, which trains Catholics to cooperate more fully with the Holy Spirit in the work of healing and evangelization. One of the most important lessons that I’ve been learning is that Jesus intended supernatural healing to be at the heart of the Church’s mission. As a tagline from Encounter’s website says, “Although we understand that signs, wonders and miracles are not the whole Gospel, we are convinced that the Gospel is not whole without them.”

We know healing was an essential part of what Jesus did: “He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people” (Matthew 4:23). When he commissioned his disciples, he empowered them to go from town to town and “cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you’” (Luke 10:9). As he ascended into heaven, Jesus promised that signs of healing “will accompany those who believe” (Mark 16:17).

Throughout the New Testament, miracles of healing were a sign that Jesus was bringing about the kingdom of God, where there will be no sickness or disease. We often assume that such miracles ended when the New Testament ended, but that was never meant to be the case. As Pope Benedict XVI said in his book Jesus of Nazareth, “Healing is an essential dimension of the apostolic mission and of Christianity. When understood at a sufficiently deep level, this expresses the entire content of redemption.”

The whole mission of Jesus, the divine physician, is to heal us in both body and soul. Through his Cross, Jesus “bore our infirmities” (cf. Isaiah 53:4), and through his Resurrection, he blazed the trail into the “new life” of the Kingdom (cf. Romans 6:4). Forgiveness of sins is, of course, the most important healing, but the restoration of our bodies is also a key part of God’s plan. We should not doubt that Jesus wants us to be whole.

Whenever we ask God for healing, then, we can be confident that the answer will not be “no.” The answer may be “not yet” – it’s clear that some illnesses will only be cured in eternity – but we can be sure that the Lord desires our wholeness even more than we do.

Through both Encounter School and our own parish healing ministry, I’ve been blessed to see various signs of supernatural healing, and I’m confident that the Lord wants his people to continue to ask for such miracles with expectant faith.

For a powerful example of such healing online, consider this story: Duane Miller, pastor of First Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, contracted a virus that damaged his vocal cords beyond repair. Despite seeing dozens of specialists, he was left unable to speak properly, was forced to retire from preaching, and was tempted to take his own life. A year later, he was invited to give a Sunday school lesson on Psalm 103, and he reluctantly agreed. Here’s a recording of what happened during that lesson: