what He did was most perfect. Hence on John 2:10, "Every
man at first setteth forth good wine," Chrysostom says: "Christ's
miracles are such as to far surpass the works of nature in splendor
and usefulness." Likewise in an instant He conferred perfect health
on the sick. Hence on Matt. 8:15, "She arose and ministered to them,"
Jerome says: "Health restored by our Lord returns wholly and
instantly."

There was, however, special reason for the contrary happening in the
case of the man born blind, and this was his want of faith, as
Chrysostom [*Victor of Antioch] says. Or as Bede observes on Mk.
8:23: "Whom He might have healed wholly and instantly by a single
word, He heals little by little, to show the extent of human
blindness, which hardly, and that only by degrees, can come back to
the light: and to point out that each step forward in the way of
perfection is due to the help of His grace."

Reply Obj. 3: As stated above (Q. 43, A. 2), Christ worked miracles
by Divine power. Now "the works of God are perfect" (Deut. 32:4). But
nothing is perfect except it attain its end. Now the end of the
outward healing worked by Christ is the healing of the soul.
Consequently it was not fitting that Christ should heal a man's body
without healing his soul. Wherefore on John 7:23, "I have healed the
whole man on a Sabbath day," Augustine says: "Because he was cured,
so as to be whole in body; he believed, so as to be whole in soul."
To the man sick of the palsy it is said specially, "Thy sins are
forgiven thee," because, as Jerome observes on Matt. 9:5, 6: "We are
hereby given to understand that ailments of the body are frequently
due to sin: for which reason, perhaps, first are his sins forgiven,
that the cause of the ailment being removed, health may return."
Wherefore, also (John 4:14), it is said: "Sin no more, lest some
worse thing happen to thee." Whence, says Chrysostom, "we learn that
his sickness was the result of sin."

Nevertheless, as Chrysostom says on Matt. 9:5: "By how much a soul is
of more account than a body, by so much is the forgiving of sins a
greater work than healing the body; but because the one is unseen He
does the lesser and more manifest thing in order to prove the greater
and more unseen."

Reply Obj. 4: On Matt. 9:30, "See that no man know this," Chrysostom
says: "If in another place we find Him saying, 'Go and declare the
glory of God' (cf. Mk. 5:19; Luke 8:39), that is not contrary to
this. For