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Good evening, dear Father Angelo,

I am a 15-year-old boy, with a strong faith and love for the Lord.

Looking at tomorrow’s missal, in the liturgy of the Word, I read in John , chapter 5, about the healing of a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years.

Here is my question: why does Jesus say: “do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.”

I do not understand this sentence, because Jesus always speaks of a merciful Father who does not punish in earthly life, in fact “He makes His sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust”. So, why: “..nothing worse may happen to you”?

Could you explain it to me, please?

Hearty greetings,

Riccardo

The Priest’s answer

Dear Riccardo,

1. I am  happy to know  you are a strong believer and that you love the Lord.

I would also dare to  add that this is the most wonderful grace that you have received in your life so far.

Indeed, existing is already a remarkable grace,as it is the fundamental one, the necessary  preamble in order to receive any other grace.

Nonetheless, the “grace of God” is a gift of  supernatural order which allows God to live personally within us and therefore it is a good so great to be irreplaceable , as it enables us to enter Heaven. However, one can still fall into Hell with the gift  of existence alone.

Because of that, in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit said through the mouth of David: “For your love (trn: for a literal translation read as grace) is better than life” (Ps 64[63]:4).

2. Now, I come to your question.

Upon closer reading, the Gospel passage you mentioned  could give the impression that God punishes through illnesses because of committed sins.

But He does not.

3. Precisely about this case, St. Thomas asks himself: why does God give someone a perfect healing without mentioning his sins, while in this case He mentions them?

And his answer is: “for not all infirmities are due to previous sins: some come from one’s natural disposition, and some are permitted as a trial, as with Job” (Commentary on John, Ch.5, L.2, n.733).

4. What happened for instance with Job?

The Holy Scripture refers that Job was a God-fearing man who was living in prosperity.

Satan accused him afore God, and said: “Is it for nothing that Job is God-fearing? Have you not surrounded him and his family and all that he has with your protection? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock are spread over the land. But now put forth your hand and touch anything that he has, and surely he will blaspheme you to your face.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand upon his person” (Job 1:9-12).  

5. Then, God allowed the devil to strike Job, to deprive him of all his goods, including his children and his health, but He did not allow to take his life.

Job was struck by every kind of infirmity.

He was not struck by God, but by the devil, as we can clearly read in the referred text.

By that, we can understand that there are evils and diseases which have a preternatural cause, namely the devil..

6. And that is why St. Giuseppe Moscati, a doctor and chief diagnostician at the hospital in Naples, sometimes would say to his patients: “You need a confessor more than me”.

Sometimes he would even add to someone: “because you have never confessed” or he was able to reveal the sin which the patient was persisting in.

Organic illnesses are cured by the doctors of this world.

Instead, illnesses  by a preternatural cause cannot be cured by men, but only by God through the priestly ministry.

7. Now, St. Thomas says that when a man commits a grave sin, he puts himself under the power of the devil (ref. Summa Theologiae, III, 71, 2).

As the Lord recalls in the Gospel, when the devil comes, it “comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy” (Jn 10:10).

8. The Acts of the Apostles are eloquent in this regard, especially when we read about  those Jewish exorcists, who used to cast out demons with the name of Jesus without believing in Him, that is, in a magical way. While committing sacrilege, they opened even wider the doors to the incursions of demons.

Here is what we read: “Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those within evil spirits, saying, ‘I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.’ When the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest, tried to do this, the evil spirit said to them in reply, ‘Jesus I recognize, Paul I know, but who are you?’ The person with the evil spirit then sprang at them and subdued them all. He so overpowered them that they fled naked and wounded from that house” (Acts 19:13-16).

One may ask: who sprang and wounded those Jewish? Who used violence on them, tearing their clothes and making them flee naked?

The answer is: it was the devil who was acting through the possessed.

9. So, everything is clear: in a great act of mercy, Jesus warned the paralytic not to submit again to the power of evil because, doing so, he would be treated even worse.

10. After all, Jesus did say: “When an unclean spirit goes out of a person it roams through arid regions searching for rest but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my home from which I came.’ But upon returning, it finds it empty, swept clean, and put in order. Then it goes and brings back with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they move in and dwell there; and the last condition of that person is worse than the first (Mt 12:43-45).

11. In this way, Jesus also reminds us that some diseases do not have an organic cause and that, by submitting oneself to the power of evil, one exposes oneself to being ill-treated by it.

12. At the same time, He highlights  another great truth:  living in grace is like being surrounded by a hedge, as the devil himself was forced to admit  while speaking about Job (ref. Job 1:10).

That hedge is the sanctifying grace, which belongs to a supernatural order. The devil can do nothing against it as, although his powers are superior to the natural powers of man, they are only preternatural, that is, outside of the nature of man.

Instead, God’s grace is above the nature of man and above all preternatural forces too.

Therefore, preserve yourself in grace.

While the grace of God does not automatically guarantee immunity from all diseases of  organic nature, it preserves you from those of a preternatural nature.

“So submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas 4:7).

By living in God’s grace, we will not have to fear the incursions of demons because they are the ones who fear us and they flee away, as St. James reminds us.

Wishing they will always flee far from you, I bless you.

Father Angelo