Jesus the Healer

                      5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                      B cycle

 

 

Today’s first reading is from the Book of Job. Everyone has heard of Job. He is not a prophet or priest but an ordinary man who has lost everything: wife, family, and possessions. He is at the end of his rope. He says,

 

I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been allotted to me. … My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope. … I shall not see happiness again.

 

Anyone familiar with the story knows that Job’s suffering was not his own fault. It was not punishment for any sins or wrongdoing on his part. He was a genuinely good man. His story brings to mind a popular book of a few years ago entitled, “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?” 

 

Job’s pain and suffering should remind us of the pain and suffering we all experience in our lives. Even before the pandemic, no one went through life without pain and suffering of one kind or another. What can we do about it?

 

Although Job never blamed God for his plight, many people from Job’s time to ours have blamed God for their pain and suffering. Today, it can still cause people to question or even lose their faith. They say, “how could God have allowed this tragedy to happen to me or my family?”

 

In today’s Gospel we see the reaction of Jesus to pain and suffering. He doesn’t wonder where it comes from or what causes it, he just heals. He is not just  a teacher and a preacher, but mainly a healer.

 

In today’s gospel we are told that at the outset of his mission, “He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons…” He even cured Simon Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever. Although there is no way of knowing, I suspect, given the fact that Peter’s wife is never mentioned in the gospels, that he was a widower, and that his wife’s mother continued to care for him after the death of her daughter.

 

I also suspect that Peter cared for his mother-in-law after the death of his wife. Despite mother-in-law jokes, this would not have been unusual in those days. In this respect the two remind me of many people I have known who are caregivers. 

 

I see men and women devoting themselves to the daily care of their children. I see husbands and wives still taking care of each other after many years of marriage. I see parents, often single, caring for special needs children despite having to work at the same time. I see an elderly single woman driving an even older gentleman to church every day. 

 

These people are not official caregivers like doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals but they do the work each and every day. I think they often do not even recognize that they are following the directions of the Lord to be good stewards. They just do it.

 

Jesus was in familiar surroundings when he began his public ministry. It was then that he made that very perceptive statement that a prophet is without honor in his own country. I believe that his words apply to ordinary people, and not just prophets.

 

How often do the caregivers among us go unrecognized or unappreciated by those closest to us? The job of a mother and father can be a very thankless one. Why is it so hard for children to see what their parents are doing for them? Why do they often make their lives more difficult, especially when it would be so easy to lend a hand?

 

The best marriages are those where the couple literally care for each other. It’s not just romance. They each share the burdens of marriage and work together to lift the load. 

 

Even senior citizens, who often require so much care and attention, can try to be less demanding on those who now must care for them. They should be especially considerate of the needs of their grown children who are busy with their own families.

 

In today’s second reading St. Paul refers to himself as a steward, that is, someone who does the work of his master even when the master is away. Throughout the gospels Jesus praises good stewards and condemns bad ones. 

 

In our own little way, we are all called to be good stewards of those who have been entrusted to our care. Maybe, we can’t work miracles, but a life devoted to the care of others is a kind of miracle in itself.

 

###

Reading 1. Job 7: 1-4, 6-7

Reading II. I Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22-23

Gospel. Mark 1: 29-39 (he drove out many demons).

Healing the Blind Man

                       30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                      B cycle

 

Today’s first reading from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah is about the Lord’s deliverance of his people from slavery. He speaks of an immense crowd finally able to return to their native land. 

 

Behold, I will bring them back

From the land of the north;

I will gather them from the ends of the world,

With the blind and the lame in their midst…

 

In today’s gospel reading from Mark we can see that the cure of one blind man by Jesus is a fulfillment of the prophecy. Bartimaeus was the blind man’s name. Actually “bar” means “son of” and so the poor beggar is only identified as the son of his father, Timaeus. Bartimaeus is begging at the entrance to Jericho when he hears that Jesus is passing by followed by a large crowd.  He raises his voice and says, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” 

 

We are told that people tried to stop his shouting but he persisted until Jesus stopped and called for him. Immediately, the man jumped up and approached Jesus who simply asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” His reply is simply, “Master, I want to see.” Mark does not bother with any details but only indicates that a few words from Jesus were enough to enable Bartimaeus to see. “Go your way, your faith has saved you.” 

 

Jesus said that it was the faith of Bartimaeus that saved him and allowed him to see. But Bartimaeus could not see until he encountered Jesus on the road to Jericho. How do we encounter Jesus today in our ordinary lives? If we have faith, we will encounter Jesus at every Mass. Our faith tells us that Jesus is really presence in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Moreover, we also believe that at the Consecration of the Mass, the actual priest is Jesus himself who offers Himself for us in the same way that he offered Himself on Calvary. 

 

If we think about it, we can also encounter Jesus throughout the Mass. So many prayers are directed to him, and we have his own words and deeds in the gospel reading. After the Second Vatican Council the Church revived the Kiss of Peace, an ancient practice that had largely gone out of use. In past times the priest would bow and kiss the altar. The altar represented Jesus and it was understood that the priest was actually being kissed by Jesus. The priest would then turn to a deacon and pass the kiss of Jesus to him while saying, “Peace be with you.” The deacon would then go into the congregation and ask them to pass the kiss of Jesus on to their neighbor. 

 

If we could only see today that when someone offers us the Kiss of Peace or even a handshake, it is actually Jesus offering his hand to us. The Kiss of Peace is a blessing and we are being asked to bless our neighbor. For all we know, that neighbor could be a real saint, or at least someone doing the Lord’s work in their own little way. On the other hand, we might be passing the blessing to someone who needs the healing of Jesus as much as Bartimaeus did

 

Today, many people like to think of Jesus as a good man and a fine teacher. Despite the accounts of miracles like the one above, they find it hard to see that Jesus is something else. Such was not the case with the people who witnessed these miraculous healings as well as with the early followers of Jesus. In our second reading today, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews calls Jesus a High Priest, a priest who by offering Himself enabled us all to be healed. 

 

Whether we realize it or not, we are all at Mass for a reason. We all have problems and need help. Jesus asked Bartimaeus, “what do you want me to do for you?” He wanted to see. We are told that on receiving his sight, Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the way. We can encounter Jesus in the Mass but we can also follow on his way by caring for those entrusted to our care. 

 

 ### 

Note: Image of a stained glass window in St. Joseph's Basilica, Alameda, CA. is by Richard DeMarco.

Reading 1.  Jeremiah 31: 7-9

Reading II. Hebrews 5: 1-6

Gospel. Mark 1Mark 10: 46-52 (Bartimaeus, a blind man)

The Deaf and Dumb Man

                       23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

                 

 

       

The passage in today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah has naturally been taken to point to the work of Jesus. Isaiah foresees the signs of the coming of the Lord.

 

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,

The ears of the deaf be cleared;

Then will the lame leap like a stag,

Then the tongue of the mute will sing.

 

Of course, we know that Jesus did all of these things. He gave sight to the blind man. He told the paralytic to take up his mat and walk. And, in today’s gospel, we see that he cleared the ears of the deaf man, and enabled him to speak for the first time. In this passage we see Jesus in his role of healer. 

 

What was the occupation of Jesus? We know that people referred to him as the carpenter’s son, and we assume that he learned and practiced the trade of Joseph as a young man. We know that his disciples called him a rabbi or teacher, and no matter what your belief, you would have to admit that Jesus was one of the greatest teachers of all time. Yet, in today’s reading we see him as a healer or physician.

 

Mark relates that some people approached Jesus and asked him to heal a man who could neither hear nor speak. Actually, they asked him to lay his hands upon the man, a traditional method used at the time to cure the sick. It might be instructive to pay close attention to what Jesus did.

 

First, he put his fingers into the man’s ears, and then then apparently spit on the man’s tongue. To us, spitting might seem distasteful, but scholars tell us that it was not unusual for Greek and Hebrew physicians to employ spittle in their attempts to heal. Then, Jesus looked up to heaven and groaned, and uttered the command, “ephphatha” which Mark tells us means “be opened.” The result was miraculous. The man immediately began to hear and speak plainly.

 

We can only guess at why Jesus went through this procedure. You would think that he just could have done it with a word or a thought. Maybe, there is a lesson for us all in his way of healing. He seems to act as a conduit or connector between God and the deaf man. He puts his fingers in his ears as if he was putting cables on a dead car battery. Then, he looks to heaven as if to turn on the engine that will charge the battery. The power surges through Him into the man and he comes to life.

 

I am not offering this as a scientific or theological explanation of the healing. No one can really explain a cure like this one. Nevertheless, there is a good analogy here. We are all asked to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. We are all asked to be healers. We are all asked to be involved or “hands on’ healers, and not just distant well wishers. We are all asked to be the conduit through which divine grace or power can flow through to those in need of healing.

 

Sometimes those in need around us seem like hard cases beyond repair. But in today’s second reading St. James tells us not to just take the easy cases but to be a means by which God’s grace can reach those in most need. The rich with gold rings and fine clothes do not need our care and attention. We must be just as attentive to the poor in both body and soul. Just as Jesus cured the poor deaf and dumb man, James tells us not to make distinctions of persons.

 

I love the animal stories of James Herriot, the famous British veterinarian, who spent his life caring for thousands of farm and domestic animals in rural Yorkshire. Herriot must have had plenty of ordinary cases but the stories he tells in his books are about those animals most in need of care. He treated them all, the healthy and the weak, with equal care and compassion. He came to realize that each animal had a value no matter the wealth or status of the owner. In his books Herriot used this little poem that obviously meant a lot to him.

 

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small, 

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

 

It would be great if we could follow Herriot’s example in dealing with those we encounter every day in our ordinary lives.

 

###

Reading 1.  Isaiah 35: 4-7a

Reading II. James 2: 1-5

Gospel. Mark 7: 31-37 (Ephphatha—Be Opened)

Jesus Heals the Sick

                       5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                      

 

 

Today’s first reading is from the Book of Job. Everyone has heard of Job. He is not a prophet or priest but an ordinary man who has lost everything: wife, family, and possessions. He is at the end of his rope. He says,

 

"I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been allotted to me. … My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope. … I shall not see happiness again."

 

Anyone familiar with the story knows that Job’s suffering was not his own fault. It was not punishment for any sins or wrongdoing on his part. He was a genuinely good man. His story brings to mind a popular book of a few years ago entitled, “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?” 

 

Job’s pain and suffering should remind us of the pain and suffering we all experience in our lives. Even before the pandemic, no one ever went through life without pain and suffering of one kind or another. What can we do about it?

 

Although Job never blamed God for his plight, many people from Job’s time to ours have blamed God for their pain and suffering. Today, it can still cause people to question or even lose their faith. They say, “how could God have allowed this tragedy to happen to me or my family?”

 

In today’s Gospel we see the reaction of Jesus to pain and suffering. He doesn’t wonder where it comes from or what causes it, he just heals. He is not just a teacher and a preacher, but mainly a healer.

 

In today’s gospel we are told that at the outset of his mission, “He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons…” He even cured Simon Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever. 

 

Although there is no way of knowing, I suspect, given the fact that Peter’s wife is never mentioned in the gospels, that he was a widower, and that his wife’s mother continued to care for him after the death of her daughter.

 

I also suspect that Peter cared for his mother-in-law after the death of his wife. Despite mother-in-law jokes, this would not have been unusual in those days. In this respect the two remind me of many people I have known who are caregivers. 

 

I see men and women devoting themselves to the daily care of their children. I see husbands and wives still taking care of each other after many years of marriage. I see parents, often single, caring for special needs children despite having to work at the same time. I see an elderly single woman driving an even older gentleman to church every day. 

 

These people are not official caregivers like doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals but they do the work each and every day. I think they often do not even recognize that they are following the directions of the Lord to be good stewards. They just do it.

 

Jesus was in familiar surroundings when he began his public ministry. It was then that he made that very perceptive statement that a prophet is without honor in his own country. I believe that his words apply to ordinary people, and not just prophets.

 

How often do the caregivers among us go unrecognized or unappreciated by those closest to us? The job of a mother and father can be a very thankless one. Why is it so hard for children to see what their parents are doing for them? Why do they often make their lives more difficult, especially when it would be so easy to lend a hand?

 

The best marriages are those where the couple literally care for each other. It’s not just romance. They each share the burdens of marriage and work together to lift the load. 

 

Even senior citizens, who often require so much care and attention, can try to be less demanding on those who now must care for them. They should be especially considerate of the needs of their grown children who are busy with their own families.

 

In today’s second reading St. Paul refers to himself as a steward, that is, someone who does the work of his master even when the master is away. Throughout the gospels Jesus praises good stewards and condemns bad ones. 

 

In our own little way, we are all called to be good stewards of those who have been entrusted to our care. Maybe, we can’t work miracles, but a life devoted to the care of others is a kind of miracle in itself.

 

###

Reading 1. Job 7: 1-4, 6-7

Reading II. I Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22-23

Gospel. Mark 1: 29-39 (he drove out many demons).