Wednesday, Advent I: “My heart is moved with pity"

Physical healing is a promise of the power of God's love to heal our nature wounded by sin. Physical wholeness is a powerful sign in this world of God's promise for each of us of life completed because an eternal gift. The light which symbolizes the advent of Jesus Christ during this season promises healing for hearts which have known the darkness of sin. The "lame, the deformed, the mute" all are signs for us of our own present need for healing which can come only from God through Christ with us. Great crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others. They placed them at his feet, and he cured them.

-- Mt 15:29-37

"Individual, integral confession and absolution remain the only ordinary way for the faithful to reconcile themselves with God and the Church, unless physical or moral impossibility excuses from this kind of confession." There are profound reasons for this. Christ is at work in each of the sacraments. He personally addresses every sinner: "My son, your sins are forgiven." He is the physician tending each one of the sick who need him to cure them. He raises them up and reintegrates them into fraternal communion. Personal confession is thus the form most expressive of reconciliation with God and with the Church.

-- CCC 1484

Photo source: Vatican Radio.