Pope Francis delivers the homily as he celebrates morning Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae at the Vatican Jan. 17, 2020. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Protect your health, physically and spiritually, pope says

404 0

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Jesus healed people of all sorts of physical ailments, but he always started with the essential — forgiving their sins, Pope Francis said.

“We should take good care of our bodies, but also our souls,” the pope said Jan. 17, preaching about the Gospel of Mark’s account of Jesus healing the paralytic.

“Jesus teaches us to go to what is essential,” the pope said at morning Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae. “What is essential is health, complete, body and soul.”

Just like a person who is sick tries to find the right doctor to cure that ailment, he said, when a person’s spiritual health is in danger, “we go to that physician who can heal us, who can forgive our sins. Jesus came for this reason; he gave his life for this.”

In the day’s reading from the Gospel of St. Mark, a paralytic is hoping for physical healing, the pope said. But Jesus says to him, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”

Only later does he tell the man to get up and walk.

“Physical healing is a gift, physical health is a gift that we must safeguard,” the pope said. “But the Lord teaches us that we must safeguard the health of our hearts — our spiritual health — as well.”

And, he said, the first step to any kind of healing is recognizing that one is unwell.

Simply saying, “Yes, yes, we are all sinners,” isn’t enough, the pope said. That just “waters down” the serious consequences of sin and the need for healing. “Today Jesus says to each of us, ‘I want to forgive your sins.'”

Related Post

The Bethlehem grotto at Washington's Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land features a 14-point silver star with the words "Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est" ("Here Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary"), a direct copy of the one pilgrims touch in Bethlehem and decorated for Christmas in this Dec. 24, 2017, photo. The monastery is a perfect place for those who can't make it to the Holy Land to witness Christmas celebrations in the birthplace of Christ may look like, say Franciscan friars at the monastery. (CNS photo/Rhina Guidos)

U.S. monastery transmits Christmas Holy Land experience to Washington

Posted by - December 23, 2018 0
WASHINGTON (CNS) — With a diapered baby Jesus doll in her arms, the woman named Mary descended the steps and…
Pope Francis greets children during an audience with children participating in the "Train of Children" at the Vatican June 9. Children from poor suburbs outside Milan arrived on a train that stopped at the Vatican. Also pictured is Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Pope shares childhood memories with Italian children

Posted by - June 16, 2018 0
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis told Italian schoolchildren that he grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, “the most beautiful…
St. Mary's Cathedral in Marawi, Philippines, is seen May 11, 2019. Forces affiliated with the Islamic State attacked the cathedral in 2017. Christians and Muslims prayed July 27, 2019, in the ruins of the cathedral and mosques in Marawi, which were devastated by a five-month siege. (CNS photo/Eloisa Lopez, Reuters)

Christians, Muslims pray at ruins of Philippine town’s church, mosques

Posted by - August 2, 2019 0
MARAWI, Philippines (CNS) — Christians and Muslims prayed in the ruins of a church and a mosque in the southern…