N.B. This is Part III of a 3-parts series on the Triduum. Part I is here. Part II is here.
Easter Vigil April 19, 2025
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
“Their story seemed like nonsense.” Yet, we’re here because of that nonsense, here at the culmination of the Paschal Mystery. Since Thursday, we’ve dwelt in this mystery, reflecting on how it heals us. At the Last Supper, we considered how Jesus heals our community through forgiveness and new priorities. At the Crucifixion, we considered how Jesus heals our souls by entering into our pointless, lonely suffering to make it into redemptive, shared suffering. Yet, human beings are not just a collection of souls! If this promise of Paschal Healing is real, if it is thorough, then it must also heal our bodies! Indeed, it does.
“Their story seemed like nonsense.” Dead people stay dead. That’s how human bodies work. They get sicker and sicker, weaker and weaker until eventually they stop working once and for all. Then they turn into dust. From heretics who assumed Jesus didn’t have a real body to Thomas Jefferson who literally used scissors to cut miracles out of the bible to so-called “biblical scholars” who argue that the gospels are legends collected by anonymous groups who experienced a “spiritual” or “psychological resurrection” rather than a physical one… people have always come back to this: dead people stay dead. They know that’s true, therefore they can assume Christianity is false because we claim that, one time, a dead body stopped being dead forever.
But what if we’re right? What if there is a way to break the pattern, to reverse death? What proof would you need to accept this claim? We have a rather surprising amount of evidence that Jesus rose. Eyewitness accounts – lots of them! People who literally died rather than change their story about a dead man coming back to life. There’s the Shroud of Turin, which some people claim is a fake but even the world’s best scientists couldn’t fake it right now if they wanted to.
But that was so long ago! What about something more recent? From what we can see, human bodies still age, weaken, die, and decay. They can heal a little bit, but the general direction is always downward and there have always been steps that cannot be undone. A broken bone? Sure, but even that leaves a mark. What about losing an arm entirely? Sorry, it’s gone forever, even if we give you a mechanical one in its place. The body always fails. Always.
Jesus knows how hard it is to believe otherwise. That’s why, even before he died and rose, he demonstrated again and again that he had the power to reverse the direction of our bodily decline. Leprosy, deafness, blindness, paralysis, and even death. Even better, he told his Apostles to do the same thing. And they did! All of it was temporary – healed people still died eventually – but it was evidence that we can believe Jesus’ promise. What promise is that? That, one day, we will be healed in our bodies! As the book of Job puts it, “in my flesh, I shall see God.” United with healed souls in a healed communion of other healed people, our bodies will share in a perfect victory over death. For those dealing with failing bodies, chronic illness, and the various frustrations of old age, this is the thing we should think of often! This body fails me, but I look forward in hope, knowing I’ll get it back, only better and never to fail me again. Think often of your resurrection!
Is that it, though? Is the physical healing of the Paschal Mystery only a future hope, a distant anticipation? After all, Jesus heals souls now and he heals communities now, at least partly. What about bodies? Does he heal them now? Yes, he does! Healings are not a thing of the past! The Shrine at Lourdes has a meticulous record of proven miracles, verified by non-believing doctors, one of which was officially recognized just 3 days ago. Every newly canonized saint requires well-documented, carefully scrutinized miracles. I’ve personally seen people regain the use of limbs and leave behind wheelchairs. Just as Jesus still heals communities and souls, he still heals bodies!
So, why don’t we see it more often? For the same reason we don’t often see the healing of communities and souls. Do you know how rarely people, even Catholics, forgive their enemies? Do you know how rarely people, even Catholics, learn to embrace suffering with joy? Especially in our comfortable, technologically-dependent… our self-dependent culture, we don’t often practice the kind of faith that it takes to be healed body, soul, or communally. That kind of healing seems like “nonsense” to us, even if we’re respectful enough not to say that out loud.
Look, I’m not saying that every time somebody isn’t healed, it’s because they didn’t have enough faith. The truth is that spiritual and communal healing are more important. Physical illness, suffering, and death are often spiritually better for us and others than if every problem was healed. I’ve seen many miraculous healings of the soul and a few healed communities. Most of them were because someone was sick or hurt and that forced people to respond in faith and love.
Still, God does heal us physically! And the greater our faith, the more dependent we are on God, the more room we give him to heal us. Do you want physical healings for yourself or others? Then ask for them! But remember that faith isn’t measured just by how many minutes you spend in prayer. There’s a reason I began this journey with an emphasis on communal life and forgiveness. There’s a reason I spoke of the power of redemptive suffering first. Faith is not just “forceful asking.” Faith is not just “strongly convincing myself.” Faith is a deeply ingrained capacity, a habit and spiritual power that affects all of life.
If we are not practicing mutual service and forgiveness, if we are unwilling to live a life of simplicity and mutual dependence, if we are unwilling to endure suffering with hope, if we want physical healing so we can go back to our distracted, self-absorbed lives… it should not surprise us that we lack the faith to receive bodily healing. God does sometimes heal people without faith; His ways are inscrutable. But faith, this supernatural capacity to see past the world’s “nonsense” to a supernatural way of life is the ordinary channel by which we are healed.
That’s why I emphasize mysterious and “impractical” things like the liturgy and the sacraments and grace. No fool-proof program can guarantee faith and physical healing. What’s there is an invitation to a mystical conformity to Christ. What’s there are opportunities to enter humbly and obediently into things greater than ourselves, to participate sincerely and trustingly in things beyond us. Of course there are practical steps to take and pragmatic decisions to make, but mere methods and systems and programs cannot replace the heart of faith.
My dear ones, God has healed people! He still is healing people! He will continue to heal people! Do you believe me? Do you believe that God wants to heal us body, soul, and community? Does it seem like nonsense to you? Tell that to our patroness, Mary Magdalen who knows what she saw. Take the time to read these passages of scripture, to hold your own bible in your own hands and read them with your own eyes on your own time and ask yourself, “do I believe?” Pray, “I believe, help my unbelief!” Take the time to study the miracles most proven and well-recorded and ask yourself, do I believe?
I cannot promise who, what, when, and where you will be healed. What I can promise is how: by the love of God. What I can promise is that perfect healing will come in the end. For those who persevere, our bodies, our souls, our communion will one day be perfectly restored in the eternal life of the blessed. I also believe that, if we let him, God will even grant us some taste of that healing here and now.