Benevolent Love and God’s Desire to Heal

Homily Notes for Healing Service St Matthew’s Ballyfermot Sept 15th 2026.

Fr Pat Collins, C.M.

Many people have asked the question: What is love? All kinds of answers have been given. However, St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest teacher in Catholic history, said that love is benevolence, that is, wanting what is best for another person. Our Lord referred to that kind of love when Jesus said, “Bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Mt 7:11). Jesus was referring to parents, who in spite of their many imperfections, want what is best for their children.

Derry man Richard Moore published his autobiography in 2009. It was entitled Can I Give Him My Eyes? In it, he described how, as a boy of ten, he had been hit on the bridge of his nose by a rubber bullet in the course of civil unrest in 1972. It blinded him in both eyes. When he was brought to Altnagelvin hospital, he heard his father ask a doctor, “Can you save my son’s eyes?” to which the doctor replied, “I’m afraid we cannot, the damage is too great.” Then the boy heard this father say, “could you not take my eyes and give them to my son?”  What an example of benevolent love in action – the father wanted what was best for his son even if it meant that he would be permanently blind himself. The doctor responded, “Unfortunately, that will not be possible Mr Moore.” If a father in Northern Ireland,  a mere mortal with many faults, wanted what was best for his son, surely his human benevolence was but a pale shadow compared to God the Father’s benevolent love for you and I, his children.

I can remember an occasion when I was praying for a woman who had been diagnosed as having a very painful form of rheumatoid arthritis. Her doctors told her it was advancing fast and that she might end up in a wheelchair. In my prayer, I told God that I couldn’t bear the thought of this woman suffering so much. Then I thought I heard the Lord say, “So you think that you love her!” It was as if the Lord was saying, “I love her much more than you; why would you think that my desire to heal her would be any less than yours?” At that moment I realised two things. Firstly, that the woman would be healed, and secondly, that the Lord would reveal the day and the hour. He did months later; I anointed the woman, and within 24 hours her arthritis had disappeared for good.   

Scripture repeatedly states that God’s love for us is extraordinarily benevolent.  For example, in the parable of the prodigal son, the father who represents Almighty God said to his elder son, “all I have is yours” (Lk 15:31). In other words, “Because I want what is best for you, I am willing to give you any good gift that I possess.” Knowing this to be true, St Paul wrote, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?” (Rm 8:32). If God the Father gave us his greatest gift in the form of his divine Son, why would he withhold any of his lesser gifts?

My dear brothers and sisters, many of us who are attending this healing service, either in the church or on webcam, are well aware of our woundedness and our need for God’s healing. The danger is that the gravitational pull of our need will keep drawing our attention back to focus on our own problems. I would strongly encourage you to focus on God’s benevolent love. Right now, see him looking at you with eyes filled with compassion and goodwill. Hear him saying to your heart, “I am love itself. I love you with an everlasting love. Because I love you, I want what is best for you.  My dear child, trust in me, offer your life and needs to me, and I will act and bless you.”