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Healing
Homily by Father Robert Deiters, SJ 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Mark 1: 29~39
Today we just heard a description of how Jesus began his ministry. With the first disciples, whom he had just called to follow Him, he went to the home of Peter. After healing the mother of Peter, the people of the town heard that Jesus was there. People crowded around the door. Many had carried or led sick or troubled members of their family, trusting that Jesus would have mercy on them. "He cured many of them." The Gospel recorded. Whenever anyone received healing at the word of Jesus, Jesus said to them, "Your faith has healed you." Often it was the faith of the people who brought their sick to him.
In our day too Jesus heals those who come to Him with trust and faith. Let me tell you of an experience I heard from a good friend. About 60 years ago, my friend was young; he had set out on a noble career to help young teen-age boys and girls just coming out of child-care social institutions at the age of sixteen. He had decided to devote his life to helping these young boys and girls--who were without family support--to mature, find work and confidently enter adult society.
He himself had already married and had a small child. Just then, his young wife contracted cancer of the stomach. Sixty years ago, when medical care was far less developed than it is now, the hospital doctor called him and said, "I'm really sorry, but there is nothing more we can do for your wife. The cancer in her stomach is too far advanced. I advise you just to take her home so that she can spend her last days with you and your family?"
Hearing this, my friend went to the chapel in the Catholic Hospital, and there before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament he prayed something like this. "Please Lord, help me. Without my wife I will not have the courage and support to continue to help those young boys and girls. My own little children will be left without a mother. Please help me." He then went back to his wife's hospital room. Before he could tell her that she would be going home-going home to die there--she asked, "I feel hungry and would love to eat a bowl of udon noodles." From that moment on, now sixty years later, she is still healthy, supporting him, now an old man, as he looks back with gratitude on sixty or more years of helping young boys and girls to live meaningful lives.
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The Jesus who stood at the door of Peter's house healing those who crowded around is among us-He is with us always with us today. "I will be with you until the end of time," He promised. In faith, please bring your sick and troubled to Jesus. Trust that He will respond from His heart of love, and you will certainly, CERTAINLY experience the solid truth of his words, "Your faith has made whole--made whole you and those you prayed for."
