[14] Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. [15] He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him. [16] When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, [17] to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: "He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases."
(CCC 1500) Illness and suffering have always been among the gravest problems confronted in human life. In illness, man experiences his powerlessness, his limitations, and his finitude. Every illness can make us glimpse death. (CCC 1505) Moved by so much suffering Christ not only allows himself to be touched by the sick, but he makes their miseries his own: "He took our infirmities and bore our diseases" (Mt 8:17; cf. Isa 53:4). But he did not heal all the sick. His healings were signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God. They announced a more radical healing: the victory over sin and death through his Passover. On the cross Christ took upon himself the whole weight of evil and took away the "sin of the world" (Jn 1:29; cf. Isa 53:4-6), of which illness is only a consequence. By his passion and death on the cross Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion.
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