Healing Mysteries of the Rosary

On meditating upon the mysteries of the Rosary the other day, I noted that none of them deal with Jesus’ healing–despite the importance of healing in the Gospels. After some reflection, meditation and study, I’ve come up with a set that I thought might fill this void. Here are the  applicable scriptural references, a memorable passage and proposed fruit of each mystery:

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First Healing Mystery: The Paralytic
(Luke 5:17-26; Mark 2:1-12)

Fruit of the Mystery: Forgiveness of Sins

One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set (him) in his presence. But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus.

When he saw their faith, he said, "As for you, your sins are forgiven." Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?"

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, "What are you thinking in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins''--he said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."

He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God. Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, "We have seen incredible things today."

But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy): I say to thee: Arise. 

 

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Second Healing Mystery: The Centurion’s Servant
(Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10)
Fruit of the Mystery: Submission to God’s will

When [Jesus] had finished all his words to the people, he entered Capernaum.  A centurion there had a slave who was ill and about to die, and he was valuable to him. When he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and save the life of his slave. They approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying, "He deserves to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us."

And Jesus went with them, but when he was only a short distance from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you; but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it."

When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him and, turning, said to the crowd following him, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."

When the messengers returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof;
but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.

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Third Healing Mystery: The Woman with a Hemorrhage
(Luke 8:42b-48; Mark 5:24-34)
Fruit of the Mystery: Certainty

There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak.

She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured."

Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?" But his disciples said to him, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'"

As he looked around to see who had done it the woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."

Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go thy way in peace

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Fourth Healing Mystery: The Blind Beggar
(Luke 18: 35-43)
Fruit of the Mystery: Tenacity

Now as he approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging, and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."

He shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!"

The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he kept calling out all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me!"

Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him; and when he came near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?

He replied, "Lord, please let me see."

Jesus told him, "Have sight; your faith has saved you."

He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God. When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.

Son of David, have mercy on me!

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Fifth Healing Mystery: The Raising of Lazarus
(John 11:1-45)
Fruit of the Mystery: Promise of Eternal Life

Jesus said to the disciples, "Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him." So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go to die with him."

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home.

Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (But) even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you."

Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise."

Martha said to him, "I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day."

Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

She said to him, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world." When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, "The teacher is here and is asking for you."

As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled,and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Sir, come and see." And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him." But some of them said, "Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?"

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone."

Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him, "Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days."

Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?"

So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me." And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"

The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, "Untie him and let him go."

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him

Did not I say to thee that if thou believe, thou shalt see the glory of God?

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The Beatitudes

One of the best known Gospel reading is Matthew 5:1-12a.  The passage from Matthew marks the opening of the Sermon on the Mount, the first of Jesus' sermons in Matthew. This part of the Sermon on the Mount is known as the Beatitudes.  A beatitude is an exclamation of congratulations that recognizes an existing state of happiness. See The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, p.620.

The importance of the Beatitudes cannot be overlooked. Bishop Fulton Sheen, in Life of Christ, takes the position that no one can truly understand the Mount of Calvery without understanding the Mount of the Beatitudes:

He who climbed the first to preach the Beatitudes must necessarily climb the second to practice what He preached. The unthinking often say the Sermon on the Mount constitutes the "essence of Christianity." But let any man put these Beatitudes into practice in his own life, and he too will draw down upon himself the wrath of the world. The Sermon on the Mount cannot be separated from His Crucifixion, any more than day can be separated from night. The day Our Lord taught the Beatitudes, He signed His own death warrant. The sound of nails and hammers digging through human flesh were the echoes thrown back from the mountainsides where He told men how to be happy or blessed. Everybody wants to be happy; but His ways were the very opposite of the ways of the world. (p.114)

The Catholic Encyclopedia entry on the Beatitudes echoes this that:

the eight conditions [the Beatitudes] required constitute the fundamental law of the kingdom, the very pith and marrow of Christian perfection. For its depth and breadth of thought, and its practical bearing on Christian life, the passage may be put on a level with the Decalogue in the Old, and the Lord's Prayer in the New Testament, and it surpassed both in its poetical beauty of structure.

There are two versions of the Beatitudes in the New Testament. The reading from Matthew is:

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,  for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

The Beatitudes are also shown in Luke (6:22-26), although there is a reduction number of "blessings" and the contrast of what are known as the "four woes":

And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:
"Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.

Many people have difficulty in understanding the first beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. What exactly does that mean, to be poor in spirit?

As noted in the readings set forth above, the words in spirit are found in Matthew's version but not Luke's. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary make the following observation on this addition:

Matthew's editorial additions may be seen in several places. First he adds "justice" in vv 6 and 10, both as a formal divider and as one of the great themes of his Gospel. To "blessed are the poor" he adds "in spirit." The poor are the needy ones of Israel, ... who prefer the divine service to financial advantage. Their poverty is real and economic, but with a spiritual dimension. In Matt the addition of "in spirit" changes the emphasis from social-economic to personal-moral: humility, detachment from wealth, voluntary poverty. In the Bible economic destitution is an evil to be corrected (Deut 15:11), and wealth is not an evil in itself; indeed, it is a necessity for the well-being of the kingdom, but it risks neglect of God and of the poor. God's first priority is the care of the poor.

The other beatitude which often causes confusion is the second one,  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.  Confusion here arises because few people take the time to look up the meaning of the word "meek" and operate under the presumption that it means being a shy or reserved person. Instead, "meek" means to endure injury with patience and without resentment.