From pastor’s desk on the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, year B
The gospel reading on the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time talks about two healings. Our Blessed Lord Jesus acts here as Divine Healer who heals human bodies and souls. The first healing is of a woman who was “afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years” and no one could cure her. The second healing was that of Jairus’ daughter, the synagogue official. Here too, no other human medic could perform any effective treatment and Jairus’ daughter was at the point of death. Both persons, a woman and a little girl experienced God’s power coming out of Jesus and were completely healed.
The important factor in both miraculous healings was the faith of the people that sought the recovery. In the first case, it was the afflicted woman, whom Lord Jesus addressed personally while praising her faith: “Daughter, your faith has saved you.” In the second case, it was the faith of the little girl’s father who looked for Jesus so that the Lord could perform a miracle of bringing his beloved child back to life. This time before even arriving at the scene Jesus first strengthens Jairus’ faith so that this distraught father could not only have his daughter back but he might come to believe in the Savior. Jesus tells him, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” From that point on Jairus seems to be full of trust that everything will be well, for God has manifested His presence the Man from Nazareth.
In both healings the two people are restored to health and community. We learn from these stories that there is a wholeness of the human person that is important in the Bible. We can see it in this gospel passage too, for it is not just the body, but also the soul and the entire community that are being treated by Jesus. Our Lord wants people to experience the fullness of life that is possible only with God.
A curious thing in the gospels is that Jesus cured many people, but of them He did not. This does not mean that He did not care for them. Rather, that He had something greater for them. In this context let us remember that healing of the soul is the most important thing for us. A healthy body with a sick soul is good for nothing. Eventually it will lead to auto-destruction anyway; we see that in many cases of people falling into addictions. We must cling to Jesus so that we may not fall back into something worse.
The words of Jesus have consoling power, for they are the words of God Himself. Jesus is God and Man who acts as a Divine “channel” of grace. Whoever comes to His “circle” (the disciples) and has faith, immediately experiences change of body and soul. The apostles after the Resurrection would be able to do the same as we read about in the Acts of the Apostles (5:15): “Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them.”
A side note here, most people today may not know this, but the hospitals, as we know them, emerged from the Catholic Church. Although the field of medicine was advanced in other parts of the world too, in the lands like Persia, China, or Mezo-America (Mayans and Aztecs), it was in the Catholic-Christian Europe and in the Middle East during the time of the crusades that the hospitals took form of organized institutions. It was usually religious sisters or brothers that cared for the sick day and night. The most famous of them was Saint John of God in Granada, Spain, who had great love especially for mentally ill people. For that reason, in many countries up to this day female nurses are still called “sister.” Even the Communists did not take that down as I recall it from my country of birth, which is Poland
Since treating and healing the human body involves also the treating of the soul, it is a special vocation from God. Thus, it makes perfect sense that a person engaged in this profession is truly a sister or brother who leads others—the sick patients—to the wholeness of the human person. That wholeness is possible only if we include the spiritual dimension, that is, the faith in God. Hence, Saint John Paul II repeatedly affirmed that the church has always been committed to “give the suffering the comfort not only of physical assistance but also of spiritual support, by opening before them the consoling horizons of faith” (Message of the 4th World Day of the Sick, 1996).
Let us pray that medical doctors, nurses, aides, and medical staff may truly be the bearers of life and hope. And as they face difficult choices that they may never engage in anything contrary to the gospel of life.
Have a blessed week. Fr. Janusz Mocarski, pastor