The Catholic Defender: The Rosary Patrol, The Healing Mysteries of the Rosary
- Jan 28
- 8 min read
The Healing Mysteries of the Rosary Mystery
1. Jesus heals the Centurion's servant. Mystery
Jesus Heals the Centurion’s Servant
Matthew 8:5-13
After healing the man with leprosy, Jesus went into a city called Capernaum where a centurion came to him and asked Jesus to heal the centurion’s servant.
A centurion is a leader in the Roman army. At this time, all of Israel was being ruled by Caesar Augustus in Rome. The Romans had soldiers there to act as policemen and to keep things in order. A centurion usually had 100 soldiers that they commanded. It was an important position that was well paid.
The centurion said to Jeus, “Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.”
Palsy is a word that describes an illness that has some type of paralysis, sometimes with shaking; sometimes the illness means the person cannot move at all! Anyone having this condition would have a very difficult life. It seemed that the centurion had compassion for his servant and, though the centurion was not of the House of Israel, he believed that Jesus had the power to heal.
Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.” Jesus understood the situation and saw the man had faith to have his servant healed.
What the centurion then said impressed Jesus. The centurion felt unworthy to have Jesus in his home. He knew that Jews had rules about being in homes of unbelievers and unrighteous people. He thought Jesus would not want to come to his house. But the centurion did know about authority, and he believed that Jesus had the authority to command so that things, even sicknesses, would obey.
The centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.”
The man simply believed that Jesus could command and make things obey him. This is simple, complete faith! The bible says that Jesus marvelled, and said to those around him, “Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”
Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” And his servant was healed in that same hour.
Mystery 2. Jesus heals a man possessed by demons.
They came to the other side of the sea, to the territory of the Gerasenes.
When he got out of the boat, at once a man* from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostrated himself before him,
crying out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”
(He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”)
He asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “Legion is my name. There are many of us.”b
And he pleaded earnestly with him not to drive them away from that territory.
Now a large herd of swine* was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him, “Send us into the swine. Let us enter them.”
And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine. The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea, where they were drowned.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town and throughout the countryside. And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus, they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right mind. And they were seized with fear.
Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened to the possessed man and to the swine.
Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.
But he would not permit him but told him instead, “Go home* to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”
Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.
3. Jesus heals a paralyzed man Mystery
He entered a boat, made the crossing, and came into his own town.
And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.”b
At that, some of the scribes* said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.”
Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, “Why do you harbor evil thoughts?
5Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”c
He rose and went home.
When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to human beings.
4. Jesus heals a man blind from birth. Mystery
As he passed by he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.
We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes,f
and said to him, “Go wash* in the Pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed, and came back able to see.
5. Jesus Raises Lazarus from the dead
Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany,a the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.
So the sisters sent word to him, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death,* but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”b
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?”c
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day,d he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.e
But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”*
He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.”
So the disciples said to him, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.”
But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep.f
So then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died.
And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles* away.
And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.h
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.i
[But] even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”
Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.”j
Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,k
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”
When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.”
As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him.
For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him.
So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed* and deeply troubled,
and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.m
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father,* I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”n
And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice,* “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”
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