All four Gospels contain accounts of the Lord eating and
dining. All four Gospel record the Lord dining with his apostles on the night
before he died at the Last Supper. Some stories of Jesus’ meals are shared
between Gospels, some are unique. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the Lord
dining in the house of the tax collector Levi, while St. John is the only to
record the Lord’s attendance at the wedding feast at Cana.St. Luke is the only evangelist to record the meal in
today’s passage in which the Lord heals the man with dropsy in the house of a
pharisee on the sabbath.
It is not the only story in which the Lord heals someone on
the sabbath, but it is the first time he heals someone at a meal—combining the
two actions of healing and eating. It’s also interesting who he heals; he heals
a man with dropsy. What is dropsy? Dropsy is a medical condition involving the
build-up of fluid in a person’s tissues. Consequently, because of this
imbalance of fluid, the person with dropsy is always thirsty—they are
perpetually thirsty. And so in this story the Lord combines healing and eating
and satisfying unending thirst.
What does that makes you think of? I don’t know about you,
but this certainly makes me think of what we’re doing right now. In the
celebration of Mass, the Lord feeds, the Lord quenches thirst, and the Lord
heals.
In the Eucharist, the Lord feeds us with his body and blood,
giving us spiritual nourishment for the work of the Gospel and the pilgrimage
to heaven. In the Eucharist, the Lord heals us of sinfulness, pride, grief,
loneliness, division, and estrangement from God. And in the Eucharist the Lord
quenches our thirst for the infinite God—like a dry weary desert, our souls’
thirst for Him, and here that thirst is quenched.
Commenting particularly on the healing properties of the
Eucharist, Pope Francis, said a few years ago, that the Eucharist is “powerful
medicine for the weak”. We have many weaknesses: fear in preaching the Gospel,
timidity in doing the work of the Lord, weaknesses of the flesh, the lack of
willingness to suffer for Christ, temptations to sin, concupiscence. And the
Eucharist is medicine for these weaknesses. Those who deprive themselves of the
Eucharist, refusing to go to mass, deprive themselves of real medicine the Lord
wishes to apply to their souls.
The Eucharist is also medicine for the greatest of our
weaknesses: mortality.
Writing soon before his own death, St. Ignatius of Antioch, writing
to the Ephesians said that the Eucharist is the “medicine of immortality… the
antidote which wards off death.” It “yields continuous life in union with Jesus
Christ.”
Today and whenever we come to Mass, we do well to consider:
what is the work for which the Lord wants to nourish us, what are the weaknesses
the Lord wants to strengthen, what are the wounds he wants to heal?
May our souls be well disposed to the grace of the food from
heaven, the food that strengthens, the food that heals, the food that quenches
for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
We have gathered here dear brethren to celebrate the mysteries
of our redemption; let us therefore ask almighty God that the whole world may
be watered from these springs of all blessing and life.
For those who are deprived of the Eucharist, for lapsed
Catholics, for the unbelieving, for those who doubt the Lord’s real presence,
for those who have hardened their hearts toward God, and for a deeper
appreciation of the great gift of the Eucharist among all God’s people. Let us
pray to the Lord.
That young people will be blessed with good Christian
example from their parents and fellow Christians, and that the word of God
might be cherished, studied, and practiced in every Christian home.
During and following this month of October, dedicated to the
Most Holy Rosary, Catholics may take up this devotion with renewed vigor and
trust in Our Lady’s never-failing intercession.
For the healing of all those afflicted with physical,
mental, emotional illness, for those in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice care,
those struggling with addictions, for those who grieve the loss of a loved one,
and those who will die today.
For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of
the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends,
and parish, for deceased clergy and religious, for those who have fought and
died for our freedom.
May your mercy, we beseech you, O Lord, be with your people
who cry to you, so that what they seek at your prompting they may obtain by
your ready generosity.
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