Integral Healing!

Friday, October 31, 2025

Rom 9:1-5; Lk 14:1-6

Today’s Gospel highlights the integral dimension of healing. 

When Jesus accepts the invitation of a leading Pharisee to dine at his house on a Sabbath, he becomes the most watched guest.

But Jesus makes use of the opportunity not only to heal the person with dropsy but also to give them correctives about healing a person on the day of the Sabbath. 

1. Before healing the person with dropsy, Jesus asks the scholars of the law and Pharisees if it is lawful to cure him on the Sabbath. When Jesus talks of healing, what others have in mind is only the physical healing of the person. But for Jesus, healing is more integral. Hence, when Jesus heals the man suffering from dropsy, he gives priority to the man’s sense of self-esteem. He liberates him from the religious suspicion that he was cursed by God on account of his sickness. Moreover, he affirms the person’s social communion.

2. For Jesus, the Sabbath is not a day of boundaries. Hence, he expands the horizon of his listeners, showing that any rule that restricts someone from doing something good to the needy would only be a distortion or misrepresentation of God’s will. Instead, for Jesus, the fulfillment of the Sabbath comes with the healing of the person. If we can instinctively feel for the misery of an ox, should we not apply the same criterion for a child of God who suffers physical ailment, humiliation, and exclusion? For Jesus, rescuing someone from danger and restoring their dignity are one and the same. Hence, for Jesus, the time to do good is now. 

Let us pray that we may advance integral healing that upholds a person’s humanity and dignity. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar