“After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her. He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them.
At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them. And demons also came out from many, shouting, “You are the Son of God.” But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.
At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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One of the worst parts about being sick is the sense of isolation that sets in.
Despite the care of others, our world becomes increasingly small, as we we’re confined to our own room, to our own bed, and often to our own thoughts.
It can be a terribly lonely place.
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This is the type of isolation we find at work in the Gospel.
Peter’s mother-in-law is deathly ill, confined to her own room and her own thoughts.
Jesus arrives just in time. Taking her by the hand, he raises her up. In effect, he not only restores her health; he also lifts her out of the isolation that sickness brings.
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It’s the type of healing that so many need on a daily basis – to be drawn out of the isolation that COVID, social distance, and our increasingly technological society brings.
It’s partly why some of us attend daily and Sunday Mass; why we make phone calls, text, or write letters.
These simple, social activities are good for the soul.
But I wonder if we can think of anyone who remains sick in bed, so to speak. Someone who may feel isolated from the outside world.
Perhaps it’s a child who spent all of last year learning online and hasn’t readjusted; a parent or grandparent confined to a nursing home; a single mom working from home while raising her children.
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Today let’s be like Jesus and lift their spirits.
Make a call. Pay a visit. Write a letter. Send a text. Simple gestures that can create some semblance of community one person at time.
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Image credits: (1) Health Matters, New York Presbyterian (2) Healing Peter’s Mother-in-Law, John Bridges (3) Two Sides
Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?” He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’” And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Have you heard the story about the rock climber who was scaling a large mountain?
About halfway up… he slipped…barely catching himself with one hand! Dangling on the edge, he looked down, then up, and cried out, “Help! Is anybody there?”
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There was a period of silence.
Then, a voice whispered in his ear, “I am God. Though you cannot see it, there’s a ledge beneath you. Let go and you’ll land safely.”
The climber yells out, “Is anybody else there?”
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This unfortunate climber prayed for an answer…and he got one! It’s just not the answer he expected.
Is there really a ledge beneath his feet? In order to find out, he’ll have to trust and let go.
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In the Gospel, the locals from Jesus’ hometown wrestle with his identity. “Is this not the son of Joseph?” they say.
Could he also be the answer to their prayers? Could he be the long-awaited Messiah?
Like that rock climber dangling from a cliff, God is inviting the Jews to let go of their expectations, to take the risk and follow Jesus. He will lead them to God.
But first they must trust and let go.
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Maybe there’s a lesson in that for us.
Like that rock climber or the locals in today’s Gospel, sometimes the answer to our prayers isn’t what we expect.
“God wants me to walk through that door? He wants me to take that risk? To make that change? “
Suddenly, we’re not sure.
But our safest bet is to trust and let go.
God always places a ledge beneath our feet, even if it’s not what we’d expected.
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Image credits: (1) Alex Honnold, Free Solo (2) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (3) Climbing in Wyoming
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. —For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. — So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.
“From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Over the course of history, human beings have done some of the greatest things to each other – and some of the worst things to each other – in the name of religion.
We’ve fed, clothed, and sheltered the poor. We’ve forgiven transgressions, and repaired broken relationships.
We’ve worked for peace, even giving our lives in pursuit of it; built towering cathedrals that have stood for more than a millennium; and created musical masterpieces.
All in the name of religion.
But human beings have also started wars, burned down houses of worship, and even oppressed and enslaved people in the name of religion. Look no further than what is unfolding in Afghanistan.
Getting religion right matters. In some cases, people’s lives depend upon it.
What, then, is “right” religion?
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In our second reading, Saint James says:
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
This is why Jesus so often criticizes the scribes and Pharisees, as he does in today’s Gospel. Their religion does not make them better people.
They follow hundreds of different rules – they wash their hands before meals, they clean their bowls, they do not work on the Sabbath – but all of this effort does not lead to an inner transformation.
It may sound trivial to us today, this idea of washing your hands before a meal, but rules like this were essential for the Jewish identity in the first century; it was the heart of their religion.
The Jews were an oppressed minority living under Roman rule. Ritual purity was their way of keeping their culture, their identity, and their beliefs alive.
Jesus does not criticize them for doing this. Nor does he criticize them for being Jewish; Jesus himself was Jewish. What he condemns is the fact that all of this effort is fruitless.
Clean hands mean nothing if your heart is defiled.
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The same idea applies to every religion today. Catholics, for example, can be “religious, without being spiritual.”
We can follow the rules, memorize the commandments, recite prayers from memory, recount a parable or two, or even attend Sunday Mass without growing in love.
It’s only when our religion changes the hundreds of small daily decisions we make – when it changes the way we speak, think, and treat each other – that it serves its purpose, becoming “real.”
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Our religion is centered around love.
The love that God has for you and for me – and the love we must have for one another.
How, then, has our religion made us better people, or better lovers of God and humanity?
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The Native Americans explain religion differently, but in a way that is still relevant to us today.
They believe there are two wolves living within all of us. One wolf feeds on things that are evil, like the sins mentioned in today’s Gospel: unchastity, theft, adultery, greed, arrogance, envy, murder, jealousy, and judgment.
The other wolf feeds on things thing that are good: peace, patience, kindness, generosity, charity, apologies, prudence, and love.
The question becomes, which wolf wins?
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The one we feed.
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Human beings have done some of the greatest things in history in the name of religion. But we’ve also done some of the worst things in the name of religion.
“Right” religion, no matter what yours may be, boils down to feeding that good wolf within. Doing so not only leads to inner peace; it also spreads peace around us.
Perhaps this is what God is asking us this week: how will we feed that good wolf within?
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Image credits: (1) Indian Review of Advanced Legal Research (2) Fine Art America (3) Which side of ourselves will prevail? cnn
