You may have noticed something about me in my brief tenure as a new Deacon. I don’t make short jokes, but I do need this stepping stool. Like you, I have a few things in my life that come with the package, and on a cold morning I can feel a lot like Job in today’s first reading, asking the Lord, “Is not my life on earth a drudgery?” But after a cup of coffee and a little bit of juicy fruit, everything gets better, waking me up to go into another day to do what I do and share the Good News!
Today, the Church invites us to meditate on Christ the Healer, and those he heals. It asks us to consider that we to must offer healing, and allow ourselves to be healed. But before we go any further, I think its helpful to reset a few items about the Gospel of Mark and get to know the Jesus that he witnessed. Mark was interested in immediate results, and in a way didn’t have time for the fluff of it all. Notice at the beginning of the Gospel, he jumps right into it simply identifying his witness as “The Gospel of Jesus Christ”, and a new start for all of us. Christ comes to us as the fulfillment of prophesy. John the Baptist’s brief appearance connects us with the Lord, modeling for us the need to always focus on Him and the reality that “this is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15) He comes to us in baptism, not only through cleansing water, but with the power of the Holy Spirit.
As a quick aside, I was on the Deacon Retreat recently, and I learned something about the geography of Jesus’ day. While we listen to Mark in the months ahead, you’ll sometimes hear a phrase like "after crossing the Sea of Galilee he came to the town of…" An interesting tidbit is that the west side of the Sea was predominately Jewish, while the east side was Gentile. Relative to today’s Gospel reading, Mark's Christ crosses the Sea, back and forth, to teach and do miracles on both sides for Jews and Gentiles. For Mark, the Sea in between is a unifying symbol of Baptism (Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ), adding some credence to St. Paul’s invitation in his letter to the Galations when he shared that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
So our Lord urgently brings us a new authority, which Mark shows to introduce us to the divine Jesus. Christ taught and worked even on the Sabbath, establishing that the Son of Man as the Lord of the Sabbath. To use a relatively modern phrase that I’ve picked up from the movies, Mark would say, “there’s a new sheriff in town.” Christ first communicated and established his authority by calling us into discipleship, asking us to repent and then believe! This was a different style of invitation, for admitting ones faults without believing first would have been counter cultural at best. The leaders of the day understood that one must follow the law, and the ability to do this successfully was the measure of one's ability to believe.
Last week we heard from the Gospel as Christ came to Capernaum and taught in the Synagogue. It should be pointed out that a customary teaching in the Synagogue during this time would have quoted the scriptures, the law, and the work of other Rabbi’s. For example, one might hear a teaching like this: The proper disposition of man toward his neighbor is an unreserved good will. The Abot (a catalogue of rabbinic wisdom) reiterates this demand repeatedly. Matthew ben Heresh taught: "Be the first to offer cordial greetings to every man." Shammai was the author of a similar maxim: "Receive every person with a glad disposition.” (Bokser) Notice that when Jesus speaks in the Synagogue he doesn't site or quote any Rabbi. His claim is one of authority on his own merit. This is the same authority, straight from God if you will, exhibited in the curing of the demoniac in last week’s Gospel passage, and the healing of Simon’s Mother-in-Law in today’s. Jesus uses his authority to not only to cast out demons, but to cure lepers and heal the sick!
Finally, Mark's Jesus is clearly focused on the work of the mission. He doesn't arrive to rest at Peter's house, he heals. The whole town had lined up to see him, and he did as much as he could with as much time as he had, only to rise early the next day, pray, and say, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come." Christ and the Church are calling us to embrace our discipleship in the same way by offering the healing love of the Gospel with an unceasing sense of urgency, purpose and compassion. Remember, Mark's Gospel hits the ground running because the kingdom of God is hand. This means that after Mass, we too must venture into the world with the same fervor as our Lord, ready to heal and serve!
But, let's be fair... It's difficult to hit the ground running because a lot of us need God. We need His Son in our lives. We need that direction and purpose. We need healing. In the first reading Job is not just lamenting for himself, but also on behalf of the human condition, for left alone to our humanity, without the grace of God and the life-giving waters of baptism all is truly “drudgery.” We would be “slaves without hope.” Does this mean that when you feel like Job, God is not in your life? Absolutely not! In fact for Job, it must be stressed that he was praying to God, and letting God know his pain, his need, and his desire to want more from life! The Good News pertinent to today's readings is that the Lord comes to us. He comes to us when we need him most! He came into the world, he gives us his Body and Blood and we have the Church to guides us! But today we know that he comes to cure and to heal!
In the ancient world, professional physicians did not attempt to heal people. If they failed, they could be put to death, so they preferred to talk about illnesses like philosophers. Folk healers were more abundant and were much more willing to use their hands and risk a failed treatment. Peasants had easy access to such healers and resorted to them frequently. In the Gospels, Jesus is portrayed as a folk healer: a spirit-filled prophet and teacher who has power over unclean spirits and a wide variety of illness. One very consistent element in Jesus’ healing activity is that he restores sick persons to their proper status, role, and place in the community. Lepers declared cleansed rejoin the holy community of God. The dead restored to life return to membership in their family. That Peter’s mother-in-law immediately began to serve Jesus and his disciples demonstrates that Jesus has really healed her. She is strong enough to resume her status, role, and normal function in the home. Jesus has restored meaning to her life. In typical Mediterranean fashion, she reciprocates the favor by serving him and those with him. (Pilch)
But I’m intrigued to end our reflection today with this question: What’s the difference between curing and healing? In Jesus’ time, a disease was seen as a biomedical malfunction that afflicted a person, while an illness devalued the person so as to be separated from society. Peter’s Mother-in-Law was diseased, while the Leper was ill. Curing is aimed at disease, and even today is a rare occurrence. Healing, on the other hand, is aimed at illnesses, and can occur at any time for all people. (Pilch) I believe the Church would contend that the miracle of modern science and medical advancement have cured many diseases. These miracles and advancements are certainly the product of the Holy Spirit’s gifts of knowledge, understanding, wisdom, courage, right judgement, piety and the wonder and awe that comes with God’s intervention into our lives, especially at those times when we are blind-sided with a serious diagnoses like Polio, Measles, Cancer or Depression. The right treatments, responses and even prevention strategies are all a part of a cure to a disease. And yet, there are still so many diseases that do not have a cure, and so many people, young and old, continue to fight for their lives. Will they be cured by Christ?
This is where the concept and the challenge of responding to “illness” comes in. No matter the ailment, we must never allow the sick to be alone! The importance of human touch, like we see in today’s Gospel when Jesus “approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up”, is a key element of how we help Christ heal those in need. Like a sick child needs the touch of a loving parent, the power of being held, or just holding someone’s hand is sometimes all we need to do to help bring about healing. Mark would define healing as restoring the sick to their former state of life and purpose and brings them back into their active role within the community, which I would summarize by simply saying that it reassures them that they are loved and recognized as a valued part of our community. The Parish Bereavement Ministry can not cure, or make the grief that someone feels when they have lost a loved one go away, but they can bring healing. The parish’s effort to visit the homebound and bring Communion to the sick does not promise a medical cure to the ailments of sickness or aging, but it does bring healing. Paul says in today’s second reading, “To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some.” We must involve ourselves by truly stepping INTO THE LIVES those we serve, embracing them at even the most basic level!
Finally, and I only speak for myself, hoping that all of us can relate through our own experiences… This body of mine will always feel the “drudgery” of early morning stiffness, and I will always need the benefits of this stepping stool. For these, there is no cure. And while that may be so, I am healed by a greater reality found in the love of Jesus Christ as shared through my family, my friends, my community, and my Church. And that is what restores us to being able to do what we do. In spite of the hurdles, Christ's healing allows us to actively participate in this life, getting us ready for the rewards of the next. The late Stuart Scott, famed ESPN Sports Announcer, said this last summer as he was entering his final stages with Cancer, “When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.” The Good News today is that we must open ourselves up to the Lord, our lives, and those in it, so as to embrace the true nature of healing, and be healed! We must share ourselves with others to allow Christ to truly heal them. This helps others live with a purpose, giving them an opportunity to know, love and yes, "get up" and serve the God who loves them so!
Endnote:
The Cultural World of Jesus, Sunday by Sunday, Cycle B by John J. Pilch. The Liturgical Press. 1996. pp. 31-33. http://liturgy.slu.edu/5OrdB020815/theword_cultural.html
The Wisdom of the Talmud, by Ben Zion Bokser, [1951]. http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/wott/wott08.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment