Why do we need to let ourselves heal and contribute to healing others? Because we are vulnerable. Only those who lack experience or knowledge of themselves and others can be unaware of this need. Pope Leo XIV's catecheses this summer have focused on some miracles of different healings of Jesus in the Gospel.
Bartimaeus: rising up before Jesus who passes by and knocks
On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus met Bartimaeus, a blind man and beggar (cf. General Audience, "The Lord's Prayer")., 11-VI-2025). His name means son of Timaeus, but also son of honor or admiration, which suggests to us that "Bartimaeus - because of his dramatic situation, his loneliness and his immobile attitude, as St. Augustine observes - fails to live what he is called to be.".
Sitting by the side of the road, Bartimaeus needs someone to pick him up and help him out of his situation and keep walking. And he does what he knows how to do: ask and cry out. It is a lesson for us. "If you really want something -The Pope proposes, do everything you can to get it, even when others berate you, humiliate you and tell you to quit. If you really want it, keep shouting!!"
In fact, the cry of Bartimaeus, "Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!" (Mk 10:47)-has become a well-known prayer in the Eastern tradition, which we too can use: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.".
Bartimaeus is blind, but, paradoxically, he sees better than the others and recognizes who Jesus is. At his cry, Jesus stops and calls out to him, "Jesus!because -The successor of Peter remarked. there is no cry that God does not hear, even when we are not conscious of turning to Him.".
Throwing the mantle
Curiously, Jesus does not approach him immediately, but, in order to revive Bartimaeus' life, "...".pushes him to get up, he trusts in his possibility to walk. This man can stand up, he can rise from his deadly situations.". He is able to do it, but he must first throw off his mantle..
This means, the Pope points out, that Bartimaeus must leave his security, his home, his defensive garment (which even the law recognized, cf. Ex 22:25), and come before Jesus in all his vulnerability."Often what blocks us are precisely our apparent securities, what we have put on to defend ourselves and that, instead, prevents us from walking.".
It is noteworthy that Jesus asks him what might seem obvious: "What do you want me to do for you?". Because sometimes we don't want to be cured of our illnesses: we prefer to stay still so as not to take responsibility.
"Bartimaeus not only wants to see again, he also wants to regain his dignity! To look up, you have to raise your head. Sometimes people are blocked because life has humiliated them and they only want to regain their self-worth.".
In any case, "what saves Bartimaeus, and each one of us, is faith.". In healing Bartimaeus, Jesus gives him back his freedom of movement, without asking him to follow him. But Bartimaeus freely chooses to follow Jesus, who is the Way.
The paralytic in the swimming pool: starring the real life
On another occasion Jesus meets, near the door of the temple, a man who had been paralyzed for a long time (thirty-eight years), waiting to be healed by the waters of a pool called Betzata ("house of mercy"), considered thaumaturgic (cfr. General Audience, 18-VI-2025).
Pope Leo notes that this pool "could be an image of the Church, where the sick and the poor gather and where the Lord comes to heal and give hope.".
That man is already resigned, because he does not succeed in diving into the pool when the water is agitated (cfr v. 7) and others go ahead of him and are healed. "Indeed, what often paralyzes us is precisely disillusionment. We feel discouraged and run the risk of slacking off.".
Our life is in our hands
Jesus also addresses this paralytic with a question that may seem superficial: "Do you want to be cured?". A necessary question because the will to heal could be lacking. This also applies to us: "Sometimes we prefer to remain in a sick condition, forcing others to take care of us. Sometimes it is also a pretext for not deciding what to do with our lives.".
Jesus helps him to discover that his life is also in his hands. He invites him to get up, to rise from his chronic situation, and to pick up his pallet. That pallet represents his past illness, his history, which has led him to lie like a dead man. "Now -Pope Leo observes. You can carry that stretcher and take it wherever you want: you can decide what to do with your story! It's all about walking, taking responsibility for choosing which path to take.". And this thanks to Jesus!
The hemorrhagic woman and the daughter of Jairus: Replacing fear with faith
In introducing his catechesis on the hemorrhoid and the daughter of Jairus, Leo XIV pointed out that in Christ "...the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who is in Christ.there is a force that we too can experience when we enter into relationship with His Person" (General Audience, 25-VI-2025).
He began by noting the weariness of living that can threaten us in our complex reality, and that can lead us to become numb, numb and even feel blocked by the judgment of those who seek to label others.
Something like this appears in the Gospel passage where the stories of Jairus' daughter (a twelve-year-old girl about to die) and a woman with blood loss who seeks Jesus for healing are intertwined (cf. Mk 5:21-43).
The Pope looks at "the girl's father: he does not stay at home lamenting over his daughter's illness, but goes out and asks for help.". Although he is the ruler of the synagogue, he does not impose himself, he does not lose patience and waits; and when they come to tell him that his daughter has died and it is useless to bother the Master, he continues to have faith and continues to wait.
His colloquy with Jesus is interrupted by the woman suffering from a flow of blood, who manages to approach Jesus and touch his cloak (v. 27). "With great courage -considers Leo XIV- this woman has made the decision that changes her life: everyone kept telling her to stay at a distance, not to let herself be seen. She had been condemned to stay hidden and isolated.". This can happen to us: "Sometimes we can also be victims of the judgment of others., that pretend to put us in a dress that is not ours. And then we are wrong and we can't get out of it.".
Deciding to seek Jesus
But that woman had in herself the strength to seek Jesus, at least to touch his clothes. Although there was a crowd of people crowding around the Master, she alone was healed, because of her faith, as St. Augustine observes: "Crowd squeezes, faith touches.".
So it is with our faith, the Pope maintains: "Every time we make an act of faith directed to Jesus, a contact with Him is established and immediately His grace flows out of Him. Sometimes we do not realize it, but in a secret and real way, grace reaches us and slowly transforms our life from within.".
When the girl's father receives the news that she had died, Jesus tells him: "Fear not, it is enough that you believe!". Arriving at the house, in the midst of the weeping and shouting people, Jesus affirms: "The child is not dead, but sleeping." (v. 39). He enters where the girl is, takes her hand and says to her: Talitá kum, "Girl, get up!". The girl gets up and starts walking.
In the face of this great miracle, Leo XIV points out: "That gesture of Jesus shows us that He not only heals every sickness, but also awakens from death. For God, who is eternal Life, the death of the body is like a dream. The true death is that of the soul: of this we must be afraid!!".
Finally, the Pope notes that Jesus tells the girl's parents to give her something to eat: "a concrete sign of Jesus' closeness to our humanity". This is why we too must give spiritual nourishment to so many young people who are in crisis. But for this it is necessary that we nourish ourselves with the Gospel..
Healing of the deaf-mute: allowing oneself to be "opened" by Jesus and communicating with others
The Pope introduces a fourth sermon (cf. General Audience 30-VII-2025) on the healings of Jesus by looking at our world, which is permeated by a climate of violence and hatred that is opposed to human dignity. The "bulimia" of hyperconnection and the bombardment of images, sometimes false or distorted, overwhelms us and can subject us to a storm of contradictory emotions.
In this scenario, we may have the desire to turn off all contact and shut ourselves up in silence: "I am not a person, but I am a person who has a desire to be silent.the temptation to shut ourselves up in silence, in a lack of communication in which, no matter how close we are, we are no longer able to tell each other the simplest and deepest things."
The Gospel of Mark presents a man who does not speak nioye (cf. Mk 7:31-37). And Leo XIV turns to us once again: "Precisely as it could happen to us today, this man may have decided not to speak anymore because he did not feel understood, and to turn off his voice because he felt disappointed and hurt by what he had heard.".
Continued the Pope: "In fact, it is not he who comes to Jesus to be healed, but he is brought to him by other people.One might think that those who lead him to the Master are the ones who are concerned about his isolation.". And he adds that the Christian community has also seen in these people "the image of the Church, which accompanies every human being to Jesus so that he may listen to his word". He further notes that the episode takes place in pagan territory, suggesting a context in which other voices tend to cover the voice of God.
As on other occasions, Jesus' behavior may seem strange at first, for he takes this person with him and takes him aside, thus seeming to accentuate his isolation. "But, -The Pope remarked. Looking at it closely, this gesture helps us to understand what is hidden behind the silence and closedness of this man, as if he (Jesus) had understood his need for intimacy and closeness.".
Approaching the isolated
The teacher offers him first of all a silent proximity, through gestures that speak of a profound encounter: he touches his ears and tongue; he does not use many words, but says only: "...".Open up!" (in Aramaic, efatà).
Leo XIV observes: "It is as if Jesus is saying to you: 'Open yourself to this world that scares you! Open yourself to the relationships that have disappointed you! Open yourself to the life you have given up facing!'", because closing in on oneself is never the solution.
One final detail: after the encounter with Jesus, that person not only speaks again, but does it "normally". This may suggest, the Pope says, something about the reasons for his silence: perhaps he felt inadequate, misunderstood or misunderstood.
Thus we:"We all experience being misunderstood and misunderstood. We all need to ask the Lord to heal our way of communicating, not only to be more effective, but also to avoid hurting others with our words.".
Moreover, Jesus forbids him to tell what has happened to him, as if to indicate that in order to bear witness to Him, he must still go a certain way."To truly know Jesus we have to travel a road, we have to be with him and go through his Passion. When we have seen him humiliated and suffering, when we experience the saving power of his Cross, then we can say that we have truly known him. There are no shortcuts to becoming a disciple of Jesus.".
