Yet Another Eucharist Question

[Curious]

I wonder if this has been asked before here. I’d say it probably has.

When Jesus was doing his ministry here on earth, there was tons o’ healing that took place. I don’t recall one instance where someone came to Him for physical healing and He didn’t heal them. One woman just touched his clothes.

So I was wondering, if Jesus is really present physically and spiritually and everything, why people don’t get physically healed when they receive the eucharist? As I understand it, there have been various miracles associated with Eucharist, including healing…but shouldn’t it be all the time?

 

[puzzleannie]

Curious:

I wonder if this has been asked before here. I’d say it probably has.

When Jesus was doing his ministry here on earth, there was tons o’ healing that took place. I don’t recall one instance where someone came to Him for physical healing and He didn’t heal them. One woman just touched his clothes.

So I was wondering, if Jesus is really present physically and spiritually and everything, why people don’t get physically healed when they receive the eucharist? As I understand it, there have been various miracles associated with Eucharist, including healing…but shouldn’t it be all the time?

every single person who approached Christ for healing during his earthly ministry did not necessarily get healed, or forgiven, and He explained why: the miracles were done as signs that his authority comes from God, the he in fact is God. If there are bona fide Eucharistic miracles, they are gifts granted for that same reason.

 

[Coptic]

When Jesus was doing his ministry here on earth, there was tons o’ healing that took place. I don’t recall one instance where someone came to Him for physical healing and He didn’t heal them. One woman just touched his clothes.

So I was wondering, if Jesus is really present physically and spiritually and everything, why people don’t get physically healed when they receive the eucharist? As I understand it, there have been various miracles associated with Eucharist, including healing…but shouldn’t it be all the time?

Okay, I’m not going to pretend to know the exact answer to your question, but I do have a few thoughts on this topic.

You said one woman just touched Jesus’ clothes and was healed. This is true, yet this woman had an agenda when she touched Jesus’ clothes. She knew that if she did so, and believed, that she would be healed. A lot of people were touching Jesus during this time–some probably just brushed by him, while others embraced him, and even those who hit him. But not all of these people were healed of anything.

So, if you follow along the same train of thought, I don’t think that everyone who partakes of the Eucharist is doing so looking to be healed, or even believing that they can be healed that way.

One more thing…I’m not saying miracles through the Eucharist are not possible, because God can perform miracles through any medium.

Those are my thoughts…maybe someone else will have a better answer.

God Bless,
Elizabeth

 

[Curious]

every single person who approached Christ for healing during his earthly ministry did not necessarily get healed, or forgiven,

Is there an instance you can give me where someone approached Jesus for healing/forgiveness and was denied?

You said one woman just touched Jesus’ clothes and was healed. This is true, yet this woman had an agenda when she touched Jesus’ clothes. She knew that if she did so, and believed, that she would be healed. A lot of people were touching Jesus during this time–some probably just brushed by him, while others embraced him, and even those who hit him. But not all of these people were healed of anything

Yes good point - you’re right, I agree that every single person that gave Jesus a high five or bumped against him or something didn’t get healed. Then perhaps I should change the nature of the question. If a person received the Eucharist with the faith to be healed then shouldn’t they be? If Jesus is really present there?
And please…nobody scream at me that the point of the Eucharist isn’t for physical healing. That’s not what I mean.

 

[Reformed_Rob]

Well, that sounds like a great question!!

Not a Catholic myself, but on that road, I think that maybe I can at least get a start on a decent answer.

Eucharist miracles - yes. Also, men like Padre Pio, and well others that have healed people, they didn’t always heal people wherever they were. Sometimes, lack of faith, sometimes for whatever reason.

Anyways, truly, a mark of Christ’s ministry was healing. That’s obvious by the following text:
John 14:11
Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves.

So, miracles are important. But not the crux of the issue, for a wicked and perverse generation desires a sign (Matthew 12:40).
Our faith should not hang on miracles or healings, or lack thereof. Well, you know that.

But, if indeed Christ is really there, then why don’t people always get healed if they’re sick and communicate (partake of the Eucharist)? I’d say that the healing is not the point. We benefit from the eucharist not primarily by the bread or wine we take, but by Christ. Why not get healed? Well, you are, don’t you receive Christ, don’t you get grace from a proper communion? Don’t you receive forgiveness of venial sins?

Also, it’s not like Christ is limited by the local presence of the Eucharist in healing people. Far from it, He can do things like that by through His priests and saints. In fact, as I understand it, that’s the more common historical “method” if you will. The eucharist is for certain purposes, communion with and partaking of Christ (and other purposes of course), but physical healing, that’s not a primary purpose of the Eucharist.

That’s way more beneficial than the physical aspect. But, yeah, sometimes people are healed physically.

 

[Curious]

Hello Bob

Why not get healed? Well, you are, don’t you receive Christ, don’t you get grace from a proper communion? Don’t you receive forgiveness of venial sins?

Sure

The eucharist is for certain purposes, communion with and partaking of Christ (and other purposes of course), but physical healing, that’s not a primary purpose of the Eucharist.

Yes. I believe I already said that. But listen to what I’m saying. Jesus primary purpose was to redeem mankind. But he healed an awful lot people - every person that came to Him for it. Again I ask, if Jesus is really present in the Eucharist, and if He is the same yesterday, today, and forever as the Bible says, then should you not be able to expect to be physically healed when you receive the Eucharist?

 

[MariaG]

Sometimes we cannot know why God chooses not to heal people. Didn’t Paul have some kind of “cross to bear” that was of a physical nature that God did not heal?

There is also an aspect of Catholic teaching that is hard for most convert/reverts to grasp and that is the concept of suffering. I believe Scott Hahn has some good insights into it that I have barely begun to scratch the surface of. (I’ll look for the link tommorrow)

One of them is that sometimes we are must suffer not because Christ’s death on the cross was not enough, but because we are called to be more like Christ. As He suffered, so must we.

Just some of my thoughts.

God Bless,
Maria

 

[Curious]

Hey there Maria and thanks for the reply.

Sometimes we cannot know why God chooses not to heal people.

I know this is a very difficult subject. It’s can be confusing when some are healed and others aren’t and some people feel horrible when they pray for themselves or others to get healed and it doesn’t happen. I know they feel their faith wasn’t good enough or maybe they did something wrong or that God chooses favorites or any number of things. I also know that this question is difficult to answer and even discuss. But I really do want to hear people’s thoughts on this and attempts to answer this.

But getting to your statement about God choosing not heal some people. In the gospels, Jesus healed every single person who asked him. Did he suddenly change his mind? It’s difficult for me to comprehend that the same Jesus who is present in all his power and physical and spiritual being in the eucharist does not do the same today. We could write it off as some mysterious thing that we’re not meant to understand, I suppose. But if he is really present there, it is the same Jesus!! It just seems to me that people should be getting healed all over the place.

 

[Sherlock]

Curious,

We do receive grace by receiving Christ in the Eucharist. But I’m afraid I don’t see how it is, then, that that automatically means we are to expect to receive miraculous physical healing as well. As puzzleannie said, the healing miracles were done as signs that his authority comes from God, the he is in fact is God. And as Jesus points out, what is greater? To say, “get up and walk” to a lame man, and have him walk, or to forgive sins? And our venial sins are forgiven. To be honest, if every time we received communion we received a miraculous physical healing when wanted, then I tend to think that people would come to see physical suffering (the cross) as an undesirable state that we can just avoid. But we are told that we must take up our cross daily, not have our crosses taken away. We are supposed to join our suffering with that of Jesus, and use our suffering for the sake of the Church (as Paul indicates when he says that he makes up, in his suffering, what is lacking in Jesus’s sacrifice—what is “lacking” is our participation in the cross. I don’t see how that could be accomplished if the Eucharist were to be a wonder drug of sorts).

 

[Didi]

Sometimes the healing we receive is spiritual, not physical. When we think of things in terms of “eternity” it is the spiritual healing that is far more important and everlasting.

And I agree, that suffering has a purpose. Paul in the first chapter of Colossians says “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, the church.”

We are called to follow Jesus and imitate Him in all things; this includes suffering and carrying our crosses. Sometimes a person is healed physically, sometimes spiritually, depending on what the person needs at that time. God always has a greater purpose.

 

[gladtobe]

I believe your answer lies in a reading of John 6:54. The purpose of receiving Christ in the Eucharist is to receive eternal life for our being and also forgiveness of sins. Christ while on earth never promised healing for our bodies while in this life. But he spoke of the resurrection, when we will have new bodies. The Eucharist is all about receiving the grace and forgiveness of Christ and eternal life.