Homily 5B: Jesus the healer of body, mind and soul

Homily for 5th Sunday Ordinary Time Year B 2018 

Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23; Mark 1:29-39 

Introduction 

While most people take the weekend off, for priests, the weekend is the busiest time.  A priest in a large parish, for example, might begin his weekend with a Friday night Parish Council Meeting, followed by Saturday morning Mass, a funeral at noon, confessions at three, the usual evening Mass at four, and a wedding at six.  On Sunday he may have two or three Masses in the morning and perhaps even an evening Mass, in between which he may have some baptisms or religious education classes or both. 

And yet, this is nothing compared with the busy weekend of Jesus, that Saint Mark describes for us in both today's Sunday's gospel and last Sunday's. 

Scripture and Theology 

We are still in the first chapter of Mark's gospel, but Jesus already has his work cut out for him.  Let us see some of the highlights of this particular weekend. 

• While Mark does not tell us this, we can suppose that being a faithful Jew, Jesus began his weekend on Friday night, with the usual Sabbath dinner. 
• And then on Saturday morning, he went to the synagogue in observance of the third commandment, to keep holy the day of the Lord. As we heard last Sunday, while he was at the synagogue, he did not only pray like everybody else, but he was called upon to lead the service, to read the Word of God and to preach the homily – and as we heard, he did a fine job that left an impression on them, for he taught with authority.  Moreover, while at the synagogue, he noticed a man possessed by an unclean spirit and healed him by driving out that unclean spirit. 
• That afternoon, after prayer Jesus went over to the house of Simon and Andrew, perhaps looking for lunch, understandably since he had had a busy morning.  But Simon's mother-in-law was sick and could wait on them.  So he healed her.  "He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up." He did it in a very personal way, much like a priest today might do when visiting a patient.  And yes, Jesus having worked for his lunch by healing her, is now waited upon by Simon's mother-in-law. 
• Jesus perhaps rested a while, since as a Jew he could do no work until evening when the Sabbath ended.  But after sundown, the floodgates opened.  We heard that "When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons . . . ."  He probably had quite a late night, attending to all those many people in need of his help. 
• After perhaps having gone to bed rather late, the next morning what did Jesus do?  "Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed."  Yes, ministry was important, but even more important was recharging his spiritual energy by prayer, maintaining his relationship with God.  But while he was praying, Simon came to him saying: "Everyone is looking for you."  For they wanted him to return to Capernaum and do all those healings that he had done the previous day. 
• But Jesus refused to return to Capernaum.  He said: "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.  For this purpose have I come."  Rather than return to the place where he already had celebrity status and was being hailed as a hero, he chose to go elsewhere, to the unknown, so that he might continue his work of ministry.  As Mark told us, "So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee." 

What a busy weekend!  But the really important point is not that Jesus was busy, but what he was busy doing.  Jesus was busy healing people. 

• At the synagogue, if he wasn't healing them by preaching, he was driving out a demon from the man there. 
• At the home of Simon, if he wasn't healing Simon's mother-in-law, he was healing the townspeople of various diseases and driving out demons. 

And he was doing this, not just in one town of Capernaum, but in all the villages he went to, throughout the whole province of Galilee. 

Christian Life 

Do we still need the healing of Jesus today?  Do we need healing for our bodies, minds and souls?  Of course we do.  While it does have its happy moments, our human condition is continually in need of healing.  In today's first reading Job asks: "Is not man's life on earth a drudgery? Are not his days those of hirelings?"  Job is describing the human condition, full of drudgery and fruitless hard work, full of sickness and physical suffering, full of misery and desolation.  How many of us here today are not nursing some problem, physical, emotional or spiritual, either in our personal lives or in the lives of our loved ones!  That is what Job means when he says: "So I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been allotted to me.  . . . I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.  . . . my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again." 

But the difference is that while Job had given up hope of being happy again, we do have hope in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, sent to bring comfort and healing to this life of drudgery and suffering.  That is why a great part of his ministry was to heal the sick, raise the dead back to life and even giving them food when they were hungry; but most of all, he taught them a new way of life in God. 

Does Jesus continue to bring healing to us today?  Yes, he does and he mostly does so through his Church.  But, some might wonder, why don't we have all those healing miracles that we hear about in the gospels?  Well, actually the healings that Jesus performed had a specific purpose, to help the people who witnessed them to believe in him.  That is why even at the time, Jesus did not bring back to life all the dead; in fact, we hear about only three people.  That is why even at the time, he did not heal all the sick, or drive out demons from all the possessed.  His miracles were the extraordinary way by which he healed people.

The much greater and perhaps even more important healing that Jesus brings us is the promise of life in the Kingdom of God and the means to arrive there.  For the life he promises those who follow him is one full of hope rather than despair, a life with meaning rather than emptiness, a life with purpose rather than futility.  This new life comes to us primarily through his teaching and his Sacraments. 

While the life of a Christian lived according to the teaching of Christ is no walk in the park, a life of carrying's one's cross daily, if it is lived in uprightness, in love of God and neighbour, it is a fulfilled life.  A life lived by the Beatitudes brings blessedness to the poor in spirit, the pure of heart, even those who mourn.  Christians mourn as much as the next guy, but they mourn, not in despair, rather in hope, because they believe in the life-giving Word of God and his promises. 

And if the Word works by attending to our minds and hearts, the Church's sacraments bring life to our souls.  Each sacrament gives us something for whatever condition we are facing: baptism – new life, penance – forgiveness of sins, marriage – strengthening our bond of love, and of course anointing, gives us the strength and healing we need to weather the serious condition of illness. 

Conclusion 

May we open our hearts and minds, our bodies and souls, to the healing mercy of Jesus Christ, who came: "to bring glad tidings to the poor. . . . 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” (Lk. 4:18).