As well as being the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, this Sunday is kept in the Church of England at Mental Health Sunday. The Church's liturgical calendar has been augmented by this and other commemorations, such as Safeguarding Sunday and Racial Justice Sunday. These are reminders that no part of human experience or vulnerability falls outside the scope of God's redemption, but they are also reminders that the Church is a human institution, existing within the structures of sin which affect the rest of society.

The gospels include many accounts of Jesus healing people whom we might now think of as suffering from mental illnesses, although these are described in terms of demonic possession. What is striking about these healing miracles is that the sufferer's condition is often described in terms of the physical and social effects of their illness (see Mark 5.1-20). This chimes with our modern understanding of mental illness as being holistically entwined with physical health, and often exacerbated by the social stigma that attends it. Jesus' healing in such cases is more than a flashy show of power: it offers complete rehabilitation for the sufferer. In a more subtle way, this is also healing for the society in which they live, which is enabled to see these former sufferers as God has seen them all along, fearfully and wonderfully made.