HEALING HAS A SPECIAL PLACE IN JESUS YOUTH | KAIROS GLOBAL | APRIL 2022

Author: Dr Edward Edezhath

Our prayer group used to have a weekly slum outreach. I remember my first visit. ‘Lawrence can get violent and could attack you. Don’t go near him!’ When we got into a little hut, an old lady – the young man’s mother warned us. In a corner of the room, we saw a dirty-looking young man in chains. There in that poor and shabby area, like many other sights, this was also a deeply disturbing scene for us. That was in early 1978. It was our first visit for my friend Joy and I, to see what the young people from our group could do there. 

There were about 50 huts in that colony, and we visited each house to get to know them. When we reached this house, Lawrence’s mother told us his story. As a little child he was taken for a church festival and somehow in the thronging crowd, he was accidentally trampled upon on the head. Ever since he had had serious problems. Occasionally, he could get violent and so was bound in chains. 

Joy and I were there with a mission, sent by our prayer group. We knew our friends were fervently praying for us and we were also praying in the Spirit. As I looked at Lawrence, I experienced a special love and power welling up in me. ‘Shall we pray for him?’ I whispered to Joy. When I extended my hands Lawrence was staring at me, but as I touched and prayed, suddenly, he became so gentle. I loosened his chain. He was so gentle like a dove. Was it a miraculous healing? I don’t know. But I am sure deep love, and its genuine expression heals. Anyway, that day launched our ‘slum ministry’. 

Healing has a context

Charismatic renewal came with a renewed understanding of sickness and healing. Our sicknesses and hurt are effects of sin and a lack of love. The salvation that Jesus offers us is also an invitation to healing. Then, another very important aspect about healing is that it is not only a curing of body illness, but it involves my spirit, mind, emotions, and relationships. ‘Healing is becoming a wholesome person.’ 

For many, Charismatic renewal is a ‘healing service’, that is, retreats or large prayer gatherings to which people to get cured of sicknesses and other physical problems. ‘Healing’ often becomes dramatic and noisy affairs, disturbing many inside the Church circles and in the wider society. But in Jesus Youth, ‘healing’ takes a different shape and emphasis. There is always reference to healing the ‘whole person’, body, mind, soul and relationships. Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist become deep healing experiences. Inner healing sessions, where we talk of emotions and relationships become important journeys to wholesomeness. Very strangely, helping others also becomes an important process of healing.

Why is the healing approach of Jesus Youth quite different from other charismatic groups? One important reason is that the needs of youth are different from other sections of society. Pope Francis explains it well, ‘Young people . . . experience setbacks, disappointments and profoundly painful memories. Often they feel “the hurt of past failures, frustrated desires, experiences of discrimination and injustice, of feeling unloved and unaccepted”. Then too “there are moral wounds, the burden of past errors, a sense of guilt for having made mistakes”. Jesus makes his presence felt amid these crosses borne by young people; he offers them his friendship, his consolation and his healing companionship. The Church wants to be his instrument on this path to interior healing and peace of heart.’ (Christus Vivit, 83).

Jesus Youth mission of healing

The passing away of the young saintly girl, Ajna George has hit headlines these days. Many videos have been circulating highlighting different Jesus Youth programmes Ajna participated in. One such video is about the weekly outreach of her college JY group to the sick and suffering. Watching those beautiful moments of youth in action, it struck me, ‘this is the best healing ministry that the Lord wants Jesus Youth to do’. 

In it a large group of old and sickly had gathered, and the JY were moving among them. Those college boys and girls, with much love and beaming smiles, were interacting with the sick, gently holding their hands and attentively listening to them. I am sure those youth would have brought something special for them to eat or offered clothes for those in need. But more than all that, their loving presence and smiles imparted the much-needed healing of the Lord.  

Giving and receiving healing

What Jesus said becomes quite relevant here, Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap (Luke 6:38). When we reach out in love and pass on the Lord’s healing touch to those in need of it around us, we ourselves get healed in the best way possible.

Many a time along with youth groups, I have gone out to hospital wards, old-age homes, or slums. We go out with a time of preparation and prayer. When we reach there, every young person comes alive, to smile, to listen, to say a kind word, and sometimes to pray with the needy ones. After the outreach, there would be an evaluation and sharing of experiences. Then, many would share, ‘This is my first time venturing out to people in need. More than what I gave, I received love and care from those suffering people’.

I think Jesus Youth healing charism comes alive most beautifully, not in a prayer session or retreat, but when youth go out to give love and care, in situations of dire need. When youth are challenged to extend their hands and heart, to listen to the needy and pray with them, it is then that the hand of the Lord become visible for those in need of healing. But these care givers also receive love and healing in abundant measure, making them wholesome persons.