“Your faith has saved you.” Jesus repeatedly shares these comforting words throughout the Gospels. Among many examples, Jesus says this to the sinful woman at the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:50), to the hemorrhaging woman who touched the fringe of his garment (Matt 9:22), and to a blind beggar near Jericho (Luke 18:42). With this final scene, the Knox Bible offers a striking translation of this phrase. A more familiar translation is: “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well,” but Monsignor Knox translates this verse as “Receive thy sight; thy faith has brought thee recovery.” How is it that faith brings us recovery?
The Letter to the Hebrews defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 1:11). This link between faith and hope is seen when someone approaches Christ for healing. They have the conviction that he is able to accomplish this act of healing: they first come to Jesus for physical healing, but find that faith brings a more powerful recovery, showing us the infinite value of coming to Christ in faith.
Faith, first of all, is a gift that is given to us by God at our baptism. Why does he give it to us? So that we may come to know, love, and serve him. This is why one of the easiest, yet powerful prayers one can pray is for the gift of faith. We see this beautifully expressed by the man who brings his son to Jesus and cries out, “I do believe, Lord: help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24), which is taken up in the Universal Prayer of Pope Clement XI: “Lord I believe in you, strengthen my faith.” There’s beauty in asking for a stronger faith as it presupposes one already has faith, “for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb 11:6). When one prays for stronger faith the Lord is pleased to grant it as the medicine he wants to give us for recovery, especially as a recovery from the disease of sin.
The deeper one falls into sin, the more one’s moral compass can be distorted. We can deceive ourselves through sayings such as, “It’s only natural” or, “I want it, and my desires are good, so I can do this” or “Everyone else is doing it so why can’t I?” But the Divine Physician’s medicine of faith gives us healing ointment for the harsh rash of sin. His medicine of faith helps us reorder our desires toward eternal beatitude with him.
The recovery that we seek from sin can be given to us anytime. In just over a month, the season of Lent will begin. We can prepare to enter into the desert of the Lenten fast now by asking the Divine Physician to heal our sick souls from sins through the medicine of faith. No matter how much the disease of sin has infected our souls, there is nothing that can stop the Divine Physician from healing them with the medicine of faith. This recovery does not have to be delayed until Lent. Faith can bring us recovery, we just have to ask for it.
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Image: El Greco, Christ Healing the Blind
