485 the direct connection between faith and healing

485. The direct connection between faith and healing works is clearly affirmed by Christ in many of
his signs. For instance:
• when he cured the paralytic (cf. Mk 2:1-12), and the woman with the issue of blood (cf. Mk
5:25-34);
• when he gave sight to the blind Bartimaeus (cf. Mk 10:46-52), and restored to life Jairus’ daughter (cf. Mk
5:21-24,35-43);
• when he cured the centurion’s servant boy at Capernaum (cf. Mt 8:5-13), and the daughter
of the persistent Canaanite woman (cf. Mt 15:21-28);
• when he cleansed the ten lepers, of whom only the one Samaritan returned to give thanks
(cf. Lk 17:11-19).
In all these cases, Christ’s message was the same: “Your faith has been your salvation. Go in
peace” (Lk 7:50). In contrast, in his own home town of Nazareth, Jesus could work no miracle, “so
much did their lack of faith distress him” (Mk 6:5-6).

486. The faith which Jesus praised throughout his ministry was not the self-righteous, legalistic faith
of the Scribes and Pharisees. Rather, for those who knew their own helplessness, it was the open
acceptance of God’s free gift of loving, healing presence among them in Christ. “Believing” meant
reaching out beyond themselves and their need to embrace the free gift of Christ’s life-giving and
healing love. This is the faith that “saves” because it shares in the very power of God, active within
our daily lives.
487. But beyond open acceptance, this faith which Jesus praises also involves discipleship: an
implicit commitment. Each is called to live out the gift of life freely given, in all the concrete
circumstances of one’s daily life, by following Jesus’ way. This is what coming to know Jesus Christ
demands of every believer. Each has a mission as Christ himself had, from the Father. To personally
know Christ, then, is to understand the meaning of one’s own concrete life in view of the larger
perspective of the Kingdom of God: of our graced union with God (cf. PCP II 62,67,79,85).
488. Besides his healing, Christ’s ministry was noted for his celebration of the Kingdom in table-
fellowship. He not only forgave sinners and associated with tax collectors and outcasts (cf. Mk 2:15-
17); he even scandalized his pious contemporaries by dining with them. Such table-fellowship
symbolized Christ’s whole mission and message of drawing all into his Father’s Kingdom. “I have
come to call sinners, not the self-righteous” (Mk 2:17). It prefigures the eternal banquet in the
Kingdom of God in which “many will come from the east and the west and will find a place, while the
natural heirs will be driven out into the dark” (Mt 8:11-12).
489. The importance of this table-fellowship in Jesus’ ministry is confirmed by two things. The first
is the special importance among the early disciples of the “breaking of bread” (Lk 24:35; Acts 2:46).
This must have come from Jesus’ own mannerism. The second is the Lord’s prayer which Christ
taught his disciples. It summarizes the ministry of Christ in terms of “Abba” (Father), the Kingdom,
bread, forgiveness and the final test. All of these refer in one way or another to table-fellowship and
more. Not just voluntary “coming together” but the koinonia , the transforming communion we have in
the Eucharistic celebration as members of Christ’s Body.