Healing power given to the Apostles

Jesus not only healed people himself, but he also gave his own power and authority to his Apostles to do the same.  During his Ministry in Palestine he used to send them out into the various towns and villages, and there they healed people in the same kind of way as he did (Luke 9:1-6).  No doubt they did this by means of the laying on of hands which Jesus mentioned at the time of his Ascension: “…they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover” (NRSV, Mark 16:18).  St Mark tells us that they also used a material substance, this time olive oil.  “They…anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them” (NRSV, 6:13).

Spiritual blessings

Now just as Jesus gave the blessing of health to people’s bodies by a word or an action, so he gave spiritual blessings to their souls in the same kind of way.  One day, a man who was paralysed was carried on a mattress to the house where Jesus was, but as the crowd was so thick round the door his friends took him up the outside stone staircase onto the flat roof, and there they pulled away some of the tiles and let him down through the hole into the room below where Jesus was.  And Jesus not only cured him of his paralysis, but also gave his soul the forgiveness of sins.  He did this just by speaking to him.  “Son, your sins are forgiven” (NRSV, Mark 2:3-5).  On another occasion Jesus gave his blessing to some little children by means of an action.  “…he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them” (NRSV, Mark 10:16).

At Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit had come to the Apostles, the grace and life of God was then given in the same kind of way to the members of the Church through the action of the Apostles.  As Jesus had given health of soul as well as health of body by outward means, such as the laying on of hands, so he commanded his Apostles to do the same on his behalf by means of the Sacraments of the Church.  And this continues to this day.