Tuesday 3 April 2018

Spiritual Healing.

 

Jesus healed the Gerasene demoniac whose name was Legion - "for we are many."  Mark 5:9 (NRSV)

"They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind."  Mark 5:15 (NRSV)

Thus Jesus healed a man with severe schizophrenia - he had many voices*.

In Louis de Bernieres' novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin the Patron Saint of the island Agios Gerasimos heals the mentally ill.

On his feast day the preserved body of the Saint is passed over the sick in the hope that they will be cured.

"'You should send him to the madhouse at the monastery of the saint, and wait for the miracle.'" says Father Arsenios.

So there is a history of spiritual healing in Christianity.

Jesus said to him, "'Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.'"  Mark 5:19 (NRSV)


*NB Schizophrenia is not demonic possession so exorcism of the mentally ill is not recommended.

[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

Photo Credit: The Radleys Flickr via Compfight cc

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