The Father Desires Healing and Wholeness

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Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is clear: the Father desires to heal his children. He healed the blind and the lame, restored the leper to community, freed the possessed from oppression and even brought the dead back to life. Each of these miracles points to a truth we must never forget: God wants to heal you.

Too often, we carry the wounds of trauma, sin, disappointment or rejection as if they are ours to bear alone. We convince ourselves that we must fix ourselves, thinking with the culture that healing comes only through self-actualization, positive thinking or self-help techniques. While there can be natural goods in self-awareness and growth, the Christian vision of healing is deeper, more holistic and more transformative. Healing begins not with the self but with God. The Father longs to bring wholeness into our lives.

Healing Includes the Mind

As Catholics, we have sometimes struggled to speak openly about mental health, though it touches nearly every family and parish. But if we believe we are a unity of body, mind and soul, then we must also affirm that God desires healing in each of these areas. Mental health is not something outside of the Gospel; it is part of the abundant life Jesus came to bring us.

When someone receives therapy or counseling, they are not betraying faith but rather participating in God’s providential care. Just as we go to a doctor for a broken bone, so too can we seek help for depression, anxiety or the effects of trauma. These services, when grounded in truth and charity, are part of the Father’s plan for our flourishing. Healing is always a cooperation between divine mercy and the means he gives us. We need to bring our wounds to God with confidence and trust in him. We must remember that nothing is impossible for God.

Not Just For Me, But For Us

Another temptation is to see healing as something purely individual. But Christian healing never ends with “me.” Every gift from the Father is meant to flow outward to build up the Body of Christ. When you allow God to heal your wounds, you become an instrument of healing for others.

Many are carrying heavy burdens: parents struggling with the demands of family life, teenagers navigating identity and belonging, the elderly facing isolation, those silently suffering mental illness, and those exhausted by the pace of life. Christ calls us to be a community of compassion, where no one carries their wounds alone.

Healing is also essential for those pursuing vocations. The more integrated priests, deacons and religious are — spiritually, emotionally and mentally — the more freely they can give of themselves. Seminaries and formation programs are increasingly recognizing that mental health care is integral to discernment and lifelong ministry.

Full Human Flourishing

The Church has always taught that God created us for abundant life. Jesus tells us, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). This abundance does not mean a life free of suffering, but a life lived in communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Healing and wholeness are essential to our flourishing as sons and daughters of God.

This flourishing enables us to serve one another in love. The more whole we are, the more we can listen patiently, forgive generously and love sacrificially. Healing is never self-centered; it is always oriented toward mission. A healed Church is a missionary Church.

Gratitude for Catholic Mental Health Work

I want to offer a word of gratitude to Catholic counselors, therapists, psychiatrists and pastoral ministers. They are doing heroic work building bridges between psychology and spirituality. They remind us that grace builds on nature, and that God’s mercy embraces every dimension of the human person. They help people bring their wounds to Jesus so that his love can bring them healing.

To those engaged in Catholic mental health work, and specifically here in the Archdiocese of Denver, those who work with St. Raphael Counseling and Mt. Tabor Counseling: thank you. You are helping to lift the burdens of God’s children, to accompany them in their darkest valleys and to point them toward the healing light of Christ. Your work is not simply a profession. It is a ministry of mercy and compassion reflecting the mercy and compassion of Jesus.

The Father's Desire

At the heart stands one simple truth: the Father desires your healing and wholeness. He is not indifferent to your pain. He does not look at your wounds with frustration or impatience. Instead, he gazes on you with a love that longs to restore, renew and make whole. He wants you to turn to him, surrender to him and let him take care of it. It is not you telling God how to heal you, but allowing him to heal you in the manner he wants, as he knows what is good for us.

Open your heart to that healing today. Do not be afraid to seek help. Do not be ashamed of your struggles. And above all, do not forget that your healing is not yours alone — it is a gift meant for the whole Church.

May the Father, through Jesus Christ his Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit, make us whole, so that we may be instruments of his healing love in a world that longs for peace.