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Exploring the word

28 Jun 2015 - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Last winter I couldn’t get anything done. It kept snowing! No matter what task I was trying to perform—cooking, writing, lesson planning, laundry—I’d have to set it aside, put on my winter combat armor, and step outside to shovel more snow. Funny thing is, it’s summer and the situation hasn’t improved. I start a task—and the phone rings, the e-mail bleeps, or my attention is captured by some domestic matter that suddenly appears urgent or irresistible. All excuses aside, life is an endless series of interruptions that are overcome only by the final interruption of our demise. If you’re not being interrupted, you’re not living. Jesus would agree. During his Galilean ministry, he escapes one mob only by taking to the sea. Docking on the far shore, he encounters another crowd. Mark gives us one of his brilliant little details to spice up the scene: As the crowd moves in, Jesus “stayed close to the sea.” Keep the boat handy, boys. We may need a quick getaway! An important man named Jairus breaks through the throng and pleads with Jesus to save his little girl’s life. If Jesus had a sermon planned or any sort of agenda for that crowd, he abandons it lightly to follow Jairus. So too does the large, claustrophobia-inducing multitude. Meanwhile, at least one member of that group has another agenda for Jesus and is determined enough to pursue it. She reaches out to snatch a miracle from him. And guess what? It works. This surprising event—the only miracle in the gospels in which someone initiates or steals a healing— startles even Jesus. This is the sort of interruption that’s downright unique to his otherwise quite singular experience as Son of God. He just has to acknowledge it—and her. Then comes another interruption. Jairus’ daughter has died, and a healer is no longer needed. Jesus interrupts this report with his own message: Now is not the time for fear but for faith! He proceeds to enter the house and interrupt a full mourning committee in progress. “He puts them all out” (Mark telegraphs the scene in his usual economic style, but we can imagine what throwing out a group of wailers and weepers must have been like) and goes on to interrupt death itself by restoring the child, who walks around. Walking around is what children do—under normal circumstances, which these aren’t. This explosively normal activity was the premiere interruption of the afternoon, shattering all expectations. No one seems to know how to hit the reset button and continue with this day. Jesus tells them quite practically to feed the girl. Interruptions, after all, were Jesus’ business. Maybe we should treat our own daily distractions with a little more respect. Related scripture links Death has no sting: Hos. 13:14; 1 Cor. 15:55-56 The God of the living: Matt. 22:32-33; Luke 20:37-38 Wages of sin: Rom. 6:23 Every knee must bend before Jesus: Phil. 2:10 Gathered in faith: Matt. 18:20

Authors Alice Camille

Healing Miracle Healer

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In other words

28 Jun 2015 - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

After Jesus crossed over by boat, a large crowd met him. One of the meeting-place leaders named Jairus came. When he saw Jesus, he fell to his knees and begged, “My dear daughter is at death’s door. Come and lay hands on her so she will get well and live.” Jesus went with him, the whole crowd tagging along, pushing and jostling him. A woman who had suffered a condition of hemorrhaging for 12 years ... slipped in from behind and touched his robe. She was thinking to herself, “If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well.” The moment she did it, the flow of blood dried up. She could feel the change and knew her plague was over. At the same moment, Jesus felt energy discharging from him. He turned around to the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”... The woman, knowing what had happened, knowing she was the one, stepped up in fear and trembling, knelt before him, and gave him the whole story. Jesus said to her, “Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague.” While he was still talking, some people came from the leader’s house and told him, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?” Jesus overheard them and said to the leader, “Don’t listen to them; just trust me.” They entered the leader’s house and pushed their way through the gossips and neighbors bringing in casseroles. Jesus was abrupt: “Why all this busybody grief and gossip? This child isn’t dead; she’s sleeping.” He took the child’s father and mother, along with his companions, and entered the child’s room. He clasped the girl’s hand and said, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, get up.” At that, she was up and walking around! They, of course, were all beside themselves with joy. He gave them strict orders that no one was to know what had taken place in that room. Then he said, “Give her something to eat” (from Mark 5). Taken from The Message: Catholic/Ecumenical Edition by Eugene Peterson (ACTA Publications, 2014 ); actapublications.com; 800-397-2282.

Healing Miracle Healer

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Homily themes

28 Jun 2015 - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

“If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” The two stories in the gospel speak of the power of touch and body. The woman with a hemorrhage touched Jesus, while Jesus touched the synagogue official’s daughter. Both the woman and Jesus felt something in their bodies, in Jesus’ case “that power had gone out from him” and in the woman’s “that she was healed of her affliction.” In both stories the body was a source of healing and also the place of healing and reawakened life. Jesus affirmed the body’s value by crossing ritual purity lines left and right and by acknowledging a basic need of the body: “something to eat.”

Healing Miracle Healer

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Homily stories

22 Feb 2009 - Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

On a long trip with a carload of friends, for no reason a driver in another car pulled out a rifle and pointed it at us at a rest stop. Then he threatened his own girlfriend as he pulled her into his car and drove off. We were all left shaken. We called the police, and a state trooper met us where it occurred. At first glance you would think that his task would have been easy. After all, he had five eyewitnesses. Unfortunately, the five of us were able to find precious little to agree upon. First of all, because we did not all observe the same thing, there was little we could agree on. One of us was looking at the car. So to him, it was definitely a green Ford. Others saw it as gray or blue or black, a Chevy or a Dodge or a Honda. But they weren’t sure. Another insisted he had held a shotgun to us. But the rest of us saw only a single barrel rifle or a military rifle or something else, maybe. One of us was insistent that the guy was over 6 feet tall and under 30 years of age. For the rest of us the height ranged from 5’10” to 6’4” and the age from 19 to 55, maybe. We weren’t much help. He was never apprehended. What we see depends on what we are looking at. Jesus, the healer, as the faithful who saw him, is also Jesus breaking rules, as the scribes saw him. Start looking at our world by concentrating on what is really important and seeing it through the eyes of faith. When we do that, we are sure to be surprised at what we see.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

jesus Healer Faith trip

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Exploring the word

22 Jan 2017 - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Sometimes we can’t hear the truth the first time it comes around. Maybe it arrives as an inconvenient fact in a scientific survey. It simply can’t be true that our favorite food or pastime is bad for us! We reject the report. We prefer the truth to be otherwise. Then, we hear it from another source, as our doctor holds up a lab test full of numbers that bode ill. Finally, we experience that truth more potently, when something goes wrong and we wind up in the ER. The third time is usually the charm: the once-suspect idea is now ready to be incorporated as the real deal. Maybe the three-punch effectiveness of truth is why Jesus didn’t come into the world as simply the great guru many of his admirers prefer him to be. Matthew the gospel writer, for example, sees the teaching aspect of Jesus’ ministry as central to his identity. Jesus is the new Moses in Matthew’s account. The Sermon on the Mount mirrors the Sinai event as the new law for Israel to live by. This gospel was the early church’s instruction manual as it presents how to pray, govern family life, maintain a just society, and live as church together. The church fathers quoted it most frequently of the four. Augustine insisted it be placed at the head of the New Testament even though Mark’s version of the story is obviously the earliest. Jesus’ role as rabbi-teacher is still vital for us today. But he’s more than that, as Mark and John both emphasize. Jesus also makes claims about himself that are stunning, challenging, and game-changing. Early manuscripts of Mark contain the audacious heading: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” No mere rabbi here! The declaration of truth with unprecedented authority, the proclamation of the Kingdom, the I AM statements Jesus uses to identify himself in unity with his Father—all of these are revelations of a supernatural essence that fill his friends with admiration and his opponents with dread. And of course, Jesus is more than a divine proclaimer. The healing stories, which appear in every gospel but are concentrated in Luke above all, present the restorative aspect of Jesus’ ministry. If teaching doesn’t inspire you, if proclamation doesn’t startle you, how about the caring touch that makes the wounded whole? Matthew puts it plainly in his best summary of what Jesus did in Galilee: “He went around teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.” One of these activities alone may not move you. But three together just might give you cause for wonder. Related scripture links Flaws of the great Christian teachers: Mark 10:28; 14:29-31, 37; Acts 18:24-28; 2 Cor. 11:30-12:10 Now until the end of the age: Matt. 28:20 Catechism links Discipleship: CCC 425-429; 541-542; 618; 787-789; 878; 1816; 1989 Christian joy: CCC 1720-1724

Authors Alice Camille

Truth rabbi-teacher divine proclaimer Healer
Homily stories

07 Feb 2021 - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Our family doctor was brought to Chicago by Mother Cabrini herself to care for the growing Italian immigrant population. Ten months before I was born, my sister had died of polio at the age of 7. My mother was left struggling through a difficult pregnancy. The doctor reassured her that, despite the loss of her precious daughter, he would see to it that she delivered a healthy baby. She did. I, her fourth son, arrived. Six years later, I would receive the very first Salk polio vaccine that our doctor administered. His office was always filled with patients. He never rushed. Over the years, he would spend time talking to me about my decision to become a priest. After my ordination, he would ask me about the evils in our world and express how they affected the physical as well as the spiritual health of the people. Years later he retired and eventually he himself grew ill. During my last visit with him, as I anointed him with the sacrament of the Sick, I remembered how warm his hands felt when I was his patient. They were the hands of a healer—all the lives he touched, pain he removed, hope he restored, comfort he gave with them. I anointed those hands with the blessed oil. What a privilege it was. I told him what a great doctor he was. He smiled and said to me that, like Jesus, we are all called in life to be healers, each in our own way. Then he squeezed my hands one last time.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

Healing healers

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Homily stories

04 Feb 2024 - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

It was a scenario that is all too common. Routine tests to prepare me for simple cataract surgery found me sitting in a doctor’s office being told that cancer that I had been treated for had returned in the form of a tumor on my bladder. Further tests would be necessary to determine the necessary course of action. As I walked out of the office, I (always the dramatic Italian) asked him if he had just given me a death sentence. He didn’t look at me. His response was simple and cold: “We all have to die sometime.” He turned and walked away. My anxiety level soared and stayed with me until I met with a specialist who looked me in the eye. His first words to me were, “I am concerned as much about your quality of life as I am with your longevity.” It was what I needed to hear. Two years later, I find myself living with the disease, not dying from it. Everything, for now, is working. He continues to assure me that even if the current treatments fail there are many more to pursue that are equally noninvasive and effective. I asked him (that drama again) if, at my age, I’d be more likely to die of something other than the cancer. He told me that was a very real scenario. He speaks to me and not at me with the authority of a healer. Some anxiety remains, reminders from the treatments. But thanks to him, it doesn’t overwhelm me.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

Anxiety fear healers cancer

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