12th Week of OT 2020 - Friday - Jesus' healing touch

Immediately following the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5 thru 7 of Matthew’s Gospel, the Lord comes down from the Mount of Beatitudes and performs a miraculous healing. It’s sort of divine stamp of authenticity, in a sense, to the teaching that the Lord just offered. Why should you believe him? Why should you follow his teaching? Why is his interpretation of God’s law different than the scribes and the Pharisees? Well, the fact that he is able to cure lepers with a touch is pretty good reason to take Jesus seriously, isn’t it?

Not only does the fact that he can perform miracles set him apart from the pharisees, but the manner he performs them. Because Jesus is fully God, fully Divine, he could have simply commanded this leper to be clean, he could have spoken a word, and the leper would have been healed. But, the Lord chose to touch him.

To the Pharisee, Jesus’ contact with the leper would have been unthinkable. The Pharisees believe that to be righteous was to separate yourself from anything unclean. So they could not eat with certain people, particularly tax-collectors and prostitutes, who were these sort of public sinners, and of course a Pharisee would have nothing to do with a leper. If you touched a leper you would be ritually unclean.

But Jesus, doesn’t distance himself from the unclean ones, he does not separate himself from the sinner, like the Pharisee. Rather, Jesus enters the world of sinners, to show us that God has not abandoned us, but calls us to life, and restores us to life.

Through this miracle, not only does he display that he is God, but what God is really like: God is so holy, and loves us so much that he enters into this fallen, diseased world, to draw near to us, and heal us, and make us clean.

And not only is following Jesus important by listening to and applying his teaching to our life, we need that contact with Him to be healed and to be reconciled to God to be cleansed of all the forms of our spiritual leprosy which is uncurable by any other means. This is done primarily through the sacraments of the Church, in our prayer lives, and by drawing near to others in the works of mercy.

We are meant to identify with the leper in this story, who has identified his disease, who places his faith in Jesus, and makes the effort to approach the Lord and ask for healing. But also, to remember that there are people in our families, our neighborhoods, who are hurting, physically and emotionally, who feel alienated from God like lepers, and we are to draw near to them, with Christ’s healing touch, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Holy Spirit may guide the selection of a new bishop for Cleveland, that he may be a man of  wisdom, of deep Christian faith, hope, and love.

That we may overcome our fears of reaching out to the spiritually and physically sick and the most vulnerable, that we may be instruments of mercy to them.

For the sick and afflicted, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, for victims of natural disaster,  those who suffer from war, violence, and terrorism, all victims of abuse, especially children, for the mentally ill, those with addictions, and the imprisoned, for the comfort of the dying and the consolation of their families.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom, for the members of the Legion of Mary, for whom this mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

October 18 2018 - St. Luke - Christian ministry to the sick

During the month of October, many parishes offer extra opportunities for the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Next weekend (Oct 28) at our 11:30am Sunday mass, for example, we will celebrate anointing for those whose illnesses are severe and for the elderly who have grown weak under the burden of years. Fr. Evans, Fr. Schwet, and I have also been anointing all of the Catholics  in the seven nursing homes in our parish boundaries. This is a good time of year to celebrate anointing as the weather turns to chill and winter looms near. Yet, it is also traditional to celebrate the anointing of the sick because of today’s saint, Saint Luke, who was not only the author of the third Gospel, but also a physician.

Each of the Gospel writers has a particular insight into the personality of Jesus, and Luke presents Our Lord as the Great Physician, healer of bodies and souls.  This emphasis was perhaps natural to Luke because of his own medical expertise.

In today’s Gospel, we hear of the Lord sending out disciples to expel demons and to cure the sick. The Lord’s commission to go and to heal the sick is certainly continued in the priest’s ministry to anoint the sick, and certainly in our prayers and care for sick family members, by doctors and nurses, in the many who visit the sick and bring holy communion and simply visit the sick in their loneliness and suffering. I know our local hospital has many good Catholic volunteers who visit the sick daily, who are such a source of comfort, who bring Christ to the sick in the Blessed Sacrament and also in their kind words.

Illness is often anguishing, and can also lead to despair, a sense that God has abandoned the sick. So Christians have a special care for those who are sick, to bring God’s healing word to them.

St. Luke, Physician and Evangelist, brought Christ’s healing through his medical care and also through his writing of the Gospel. For those who read and meditate on the Gospel open themselves to the Divine Physicians healing graces.

Medical science has made rapid advancements in recent decades, yet society seems to be spiritually sick as ever. And so, we renew our commitment to pray and to be open to bring Christ’s healing to the physically sick and the spiritually sick, those who have fallen away from God and have been diseased by the values and errors of the world. By meditating on the words of Luke's Gospel and his holy example and by heavenly intercession, may St. Luke aid us in our great commission for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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For healing of all sin and division in the Church. We pray to the Lord.

That all those who suffer may be filled with strength and hope. We pray to the Lord.

For all those dedicated to the care of the sick, especially all doctors. We pray to the Lord.

In thanksgiving for all those who visit the sick, bringing them the Sacraments and the consolation of the Word of God. We pray to the Lord.

For all those in hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice care, for all those who will die today, for their consolation and that of their families.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for the deceased clergy and religious of our diocese, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

God of mercy, hear our prayers, ease the sufferings and comfort the weakness of your servants, and bring us to eternal life, through Christ our Lord.