Is it Jesus or faith that heals?

[KephasAugustine]

Hello,

I have been in many discussions with atheists and agnostics who point out that Jesus said “your faith has healed you,” and use that phrase to argue that Christ did not actually heal anybody, but that the sick and possessed had such great faith in miracles that miracles happened–not because of Jesus, but because of such a strong belief!

What is a good way to refute this?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

But what was behind the miracles? Stating that the miracles just happened because the person wanted them to is like saying that the carpet was cleaned by the vacuum cleaner apart from an electrical source with only our faith in it to do so. No amount of our wanting the vacuum cleaner to work will make it work until we plug it in and turn on the switch.

It wasn’t faith in the abstract that healed. It is only that Jesus has the ability to heal that makes faith in Him a channel for healing.

The problem with atheists and agnostics is that they skip over the most basic questions like: What IS a miracle? Why do such things happen? Why do we exist? Why not nothing? What are we for?

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.