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Exploring the word

13 Oct 2013 - Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

There are two kinds of people in society: the healthy and the sick. We have many ways of dividing these populations. We confine the ill to hospitals, nursing homes, care facilities, sickbeds—and that is often necessary for their best interests. But other ways we separate the sick from the well do not serve their interests at all, but ours. We avoid and neglect them, stop calling and visiting, put them out of sight and out of mind. We do this because weakness makes us anxious, reminds us too much of our own mortality. When a friend confides in us a diagnosis of cancer or AIDS or another debilitating condition, we may have to fight an urge to withdraw from them physically and emotionally. Biblical leprosy is the ultimate metaphor for the isolation of illness. Ancient Israel had a strong sense of social organization, represented beautifully by the first creation story. Out of chaos God brings forth the cosmos with its grand divisions and balanced organization. This universe makes life possible. A return to chaos threatens everything, so Israel guarded against mixing things up. No two fibers would be woven into one material. This food cannot touch that one. Nor should the living touch the dead. When such contact was unavoidable, impurity resulted. That had to be resolved before the unclean person could rejoin society. Otherwise the disorder might spread. As Carmelite friar Don Benjamin points out, “Skin, clothes, and walls are social surfaces or borders that mark the frontiers between cosmos where life is possible and chaos where it is not.” In this worldview, leprosy is not a medical condition so much as a threat to the social order. Its cure therefore was sought not with medicines but with rituals. Lepers were required “to die and be reborn,” wearing shrouds like corpses, not cutting their hair, wailing like mourners. Through this humiliation, a leper’s hope was confined to the healing authority of self-degradation and God’s mercy. Jesus turns the world upside down with a radical repatriation of these social victims. It’s a sign of the Kingdom that lepers become citizens once more. Those who are ritually dead are raised up, on the spot, and returned to their families, to their labors, to all that makes life purposeful and meaningful. It’s the sort of action that makes Pharisees and Temple priests crazy, of course. It cuts across those lines so fiercely drawn by the purity codes. If we want to participate in this radical sign of the Kingdom, though, all we have to do is ride a social diagonal ourselves. Visit a nursing home. Accompany a sick friend to chemo. Share a meal with someone who’s “terminal.” Affirm life in the living and allow Christ in you to raise someone up. Related scripture links Other lepers in the Bible: Exod. 4:6-8; Num. 12:9-15; 2 Kings 7:3-11; 15:5; Matt. 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16 Biblical leprosy defined: Lev. 13-14 Psalms of thanksgiving: 1 Chron. 16:8-36; Pss. 9, 10, 18, 30, 34, 41, 65, 92, 116, 118, 136, 138 Jesus expresses gratitude before the miracle: John 11:41 Catechism links Church structure: CCC 669; 771; 871-933; 1655-58 Jesus and hierarchy: CCC 583-586 Death in Christ is life: CCC 1010-1014

Authors Alice Camille

lepers leprosy sickness

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Exploring the word

09 Sep 2012 - Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

My pastor was diagnosed with epilepsy two years ago. Since that time he’s had seizures great and small, sometimes during Mass so that the whole community is aware of his condition. Someone offered him a ticket to Lourdes to pray for a cure, which he gratefully accepted. At the Sunday Mass before he left for France, he told us: “I’d like to be healed at Lourdes. I’d also like more hair. The God who can cure me is also the God of every hair on my head. God alone knows what I need and my faith tells me that God will give it to me.” It’s a mystery some of us would dearly like to solve. Sometimes God takes the sickness away. Sometimes God leaves the sickness but heals a relationship, a family, a heart, a broken spirit. Personally all of us here would like our pastor returned to us whole and sound, freed from these frightening seizures—hair optional. Most of us, in fact, would like to see hospitals emptied of their patients, tumors erased, AIDS and malaria and diabetes eliminated for good. If all the blind see and the deaf hear and the lame leap like stags tomorrow, few would complain. And if it happens, God be praised! But if we wake up tomorrow and all infirmities and diseases are still intact, does that mean we won’t praise God? Is cancer the deal-breaker for us? If God doesn’t multiply loaves for the starving or reverse your father’s macular degeneration, does that subtract from my faith? Jesus didn’t heal every leper in Galilee. Jesus didn’t come to eliminate leprosy, actually, or he would have done it. As crazy as it sounds, sometimes leprosy isn’t the only thing that’s wrong with us, or even the worst thing. I’ve lived in communities with multiply disabled members dependent on aid from caregivers, and also some who were able-bodied but “simply” clinically depressed. The suffering and limitations of one group could not be compared with the other. In The Problem of Pain C. S. Lewis wrote that pain is not a matter of ranking: The pain that is mine fills my whole universe as neatly as yours fills yours. A man without epilepsy is capable of suffering as much as someone with this distressing condition—in different ways but to the same capacity, which is to say 100 percent. That God prefers a world without epilepsy or any other form of suffering is apparent. God created such a world and envisions such a future. That is the sign Jesus offers in his cures. In gospel terms, the deaf and impeded man can still hear the message of Jesus and still respond to it. No matter what our circumstances, so can we. And when we do, God be praised. Related scripture links Oil anointing: Mark 6:13; James 5:14 Saliva healings: Mark 7:31-37, 8:22-26; John 9:1-41 Messiah work foretold: Isa. 29:18-19; 35:4-7; 42:1-4; 61:1-3 Catechism links Salvation: CCC 55; 121-125; 161; 169; 489; 1092-1095; 1168 Messiah work: CCC 1716-1724

Authors Alice Camille

Healing sickness Suffering

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Exploring the word

01 Jul 2012 - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

SICKNESS AND DEATH are an inevitable part of our experience. As such they seem almost natural—but not when in the presence of a sick child. Such suffering seems intolerable to us, a mistake that cries to heaven for immediate correction. The death of a child is a universe gone wrong. If the very old among us tend toward death, surely a child is meant for life. So we feel for Jairus, the synagogue official. We know nothing about him, whether he’s a good man or bad, a worthy leader or a phony. Maybe he’s nasty to live with or mean to his subordinates; no details are given except what he says at the feet of Jesus: Jairus wants his little girl to live; she’s going to die if Jesus doesn’t help her. Jesus is impressed by this poor father’s faith and accompanies him back home. Meanwhile, another supplicant comes by stealth. Again, nothing is said about her moral condition. All we hear is she’s been sick for years and doctors have drained her resources to no purpose. In fact she’s worse off for their treatments. If Jesus can’t help her, then no one can. Touching his clothes is enough, she believes. And she’s right. Normally Jesus has only his disciples for company, and they’re full of doubts and misconceptions; often dumb as posts, no matter what he says and does. Jesus is overwhelmed, sandwiched between this father and this woman, both desperate enough to place their trust and all their hopes in him. They’re not posing silly religious questions or demanding heavenly signs. They have faith he can help, and they need him, now. Like Jesus always says: Ask and it will be done for you. The official is asking, and this woman is taking! Even as the woman is cured, the daughter dies. Jesus is already technically unclean by contact with the hemorrhaging woman, so entering a house of death makes no difference. Not that Jesus ever stood on ceremony with the law. Laws are meant to serve people. The moment laws prevent such service, Jesus expediently breaks them. He heals on the Sabbath, befriends women, eats with sinners, and accepts a tax collector as a disciple not because he has no respect for holy law but because he has every respect for God’s holy people. And so the dead girl lives! Those who measure out divine justice with teaspoons will have a hard time accepting all that. To the God that Jesus knows, it’s not about worthiness, staying neatly inside the margins of virtue, getting your paperwork in order, or playing by the rules. Ask, plead, take, demand—but have faith. All mourning becomes dancing in the justice of God. 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 Catechism links Faith: CCC 26; 142-165; 170; 222-227; 1812-1816 Faith and healing: CCC 548-549; 992-996

Authors Alice Camille

sickness death jairus Healing

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A blessing of healing

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Sacrament: Anointing of the Sick Reading: James 5:14-15 I WAS A ROOKIE CHAPLAIN-IN-TRAINING at a huge metropolitan hospital. I stepped gently into the room, with my Roman collar on, to visit an elderly ethnic patient prior to surgery. As soon as she glimpsed the collar, she began to wail, “No, no, Father, I’m not dying! It’s just appendicitis!” That was my conspicuous inauguration into the world of pastoral care of the sick and people’s common perception of “anointing.” If the priest comes, you must be dying. If he anoints you, it’s “the last rites,” extreme unction, the skids are greased. But in 1975, by the decree of Pope Paul VI, the church reinvented this sacrament—formerly called Extreme Unction because it was used only in extremis—making it more available to any and all those suffering physically or mentally. Hence, a new name, the “Anointing of the Sick.” What’s this ritual really supposed to be about? We find its origin in the New Testament, near the end of the Letter of James. “If anyone among you is ill, send for the elders of the church. They will anoint that person with oil in the name of God and pray over them. Prayer offered in faith will save the sick one and God will raise them up again. If they have committed any sins, they will be forgiven. . . . The heartfelt prayer of a good person works very powerfully.” I believe that. No, I’m not a faith-healer, at least not in the sense of tent revivals, charming snakes, and the like. But I do believe that faith can heal—both physical ailments as well as the soul. A priest friend of mine told me about a nursing home experience he once had and how it changed his own faith perspective about anointing. There was an elderly, hearing-impaired woman, whom my friend used to visit regularly. One night he was summoned to her bedside because she was believed to be on her deathbed. Because she seemed unresponsive to his voice and touch, the priest assumed she was unconscious. “No need to shout loudly,” he thought, as he usually did to compensate for her hearing loss. So he said the ritual prayers quietly: “My dear sister, we’ve come together in the name of the Lord Jesus, who restored the sick to health, and who himself suffered so much for our sake. . . . I entrust you, my sick sister, to the grace and power of Jesus Christ, that the Lord may ease your suffering and grant you health and salvation.” Then he gently anointed her forehead with the blessed oil and also her hands. “Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit.” Having finished the simple ritual, he touched her head in blessing and left her there sleeping. I do believe that faith can heal—both physical ailments as well as the soul. Two days later, on his rounds of the same nursing home, there she was, wide awake, propped up on a couple pillows, sipping her luncheon soup. She inaugurated the conversion. “Oh, I want to thank you, Father, for coming to pray over me and putting that blessed oil on me. When you spoke about how much Jesus suffered for us, I heard you perfectly. I don’t know if it was your touch or the Lord’s, but I’ve been feeling much better.” The priest muttered, “But I barely whispered those words. You couldn’t have heard me!” “I don’t know how loudly you spoke,” she said, “but I heard what you said and it brought me comfort, honestly.” Physical healing? It does happen, especially where there is a psychosomatic link between mind and body. “Anointing” may have a fairly direct effect on ulcers, stress, blood pressure, heart rate, depression, hives, headaches, and similar conditions. So, too, anointing may well be of some influence in guiding the surgeon’s hand or the pharmacist’s ministrations. Still, there is no promise in the anointing gesture that broken bones will magically knit together or cancerous tumors will vanish. But even these kinds of “miracles” are not impossible with God. Surely there can be inner healing, peace of mind and soul, brought about by greater trust that God is there, ever-faithful, and will not abandon us—whether we beat this illness or not, whether we rise from this sick bed or, instead, rise to new life “on the other side.” So I gently, humbly, prayerfully approach the center aisle, where you await this sacrament. I don’t promise magic zaps. Nor do I believe that many of you will throw away your crutches or canes on the spot. But God is powerfully present. May this anointing relieve your pain, lighten your suffering, and heal you inside and out. As Saint James wrote, this prayer, among good people, can work very powerfully. God promised so. You can count on it, come what may.

Authors Father Richard Sparks C.S.P.

sacrament anointing of the sick James 5:14-15 Last rites

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Homily stories

12 May 2013 - Seventh Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

HISTORIANS believe that one of the reasons Christianity kept spreading in the Roman Empire long after the first generations had died was an act of Christian love: care for the sick. Plagues were not uncommon, both before and after the emperor Constantine legitimized Christianity. In those terrifying times Christians were known to attend to those stricken with disease regardless of their beliefs. That is powerful medicine. Acting on a spiritual impulse is impossible to ignore. It is comforting and humbling to know that on the night before he died, Jesus prayed for us. But there is more: Jesus prayed for believers and for those who would come to believe “through their word.” The “word” by which we have come to faith is more than sounds heard with our ears, more even than the words of scripture read, proclaimed, and “unpacked” in study and sermon. The word that brought the faith to us comes through living, breathing human beings who have put their flesh upon the bone-words of faith. We, in turn, are commissioned to make the word flesh once more in our love and service to one another.

Authors Father Larry Janowski O.F.M.

word of god sickness

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Paid sick leave good medicine for New Yorkers

13 Apr 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The prophet Isaiah speaks of having “a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them.” Weary workers in New York City received a little boost from Mayor Bill de Blasio, who recently signed a bill into law ensuring that employers having five or more employees will have to provide up to five paid days off for workers to care for ill family members or take that time themselves if they are sick. With that move the city quietly became the largest in the nation to ensure that a vast majority of its workers wouldn’t lose their jobs or a portion of their paychecks if they or their close relatives get sick.As a result of the new law, about 1.2 million workers will have paid sick leave for the first time, according to Nancy Rankin, vice president for policy research at the Community Service Society of New York, a group that works on behalf of low-income New Yorkers. That’s about 240,000 more people than would have received the benefit if the mayor hadn’t expanded the scope of the policy.“It’s the law and it’s the right thing to do,” said small business owner Shiv Puri , who announced to the eight employees at the restaurant he owns that they will receive a full week of paid sick leave. “It won’t bust the bank. It won’t put us in jeopardy.”In corporate conference rooms such changes might be greeted with a yawn. Professionals typically take paid sick leave for granted. But in today’s economy, where the fastest growing sectors are creating low-wage jobs, this change could not be more critical.Blair Phoenix, 25, who earns $1,300 a month as a cook at Puri’s restaurant, found that out the hard way. When she was out sick for a week in March, she ended up with a $325 hole in her budget that she is still struggling to fill. “It’s a relief,” said Phoenix, a single mother, of the new law. “It gives you room to breathe.”Homily hint: Catholic social teaching urges employers in all lines of work to treat their employees with dignity and respect and to honor their needs as human beings. See the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website for a good summary of Catholic social teaching. Source: An article by Rachel Swarns for the New York Times

new york city workers employers bill de blasio paid sick leave

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Out-of-pocket healthcare costs grow at unhealthy rate

03 Jul 2016 - Preaching the News for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus sends his disciples out to villages in pairs to “cure the sick” as part of their proclamation of the kingdom of God. Caring for the sick in the United States these days is a lot more complicated—and expensive. In 2014, the United States spent $3 trillion. That breaks down to $9,523 per person, or 17.5 percent of the economy. And Americans are shouldering an increasing portion of those expenses out-of-pocket, a new study reports. For years, economists have been talking about a historic slowdown in the growth of health spending, which they say was triggered largely by the recession. But that hasn’t necessarily translated into savings for the consumer, as a new study of the out-of-pocket costs shouldered by patients with private insurance who end up in the hospital demonstrates. Between 2009 and 2013, overall healthcare spending grew at only 2.9 percent per year, while the amount shouldered by insured patients when they were hospitalized grew more than twice as fast, according to the study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Patients' out-of-pocket portion of their hospitalization costs rose 6.5 percent each year, from $738, on average in 2009 to more than $1,000 in 2013. To put that in perspective, consider the findings of a recent Federal Reserve survey, which found nearly half of Americans do not have enough money to cover a $400 emergency expense. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) projects that by 2024, healthcare spending will constitute nearly one fifth of the economy. According to research from the University of Michigan, most of the increase in out-of-pocket expenses was due to a jump in the amount applied to deductibles, which rose 86 percent from 2009 to 2013, and secondly by increases in coinsurance, which went up by 33 percent in the same period. “There’s not a lot out there about how much people with private insurance are spending on hospitalizations or out of pocket generally,” says Emily Adrion, a research fellow at the University of Michigan and lead author of the study. “It was really a black box. We didn’t have any idea whether it would be really high or really low.” As it turned out, it was really high. “We were really surprised,” Adrion says. “It was pretty surprising that it was that much higher and that it was also higher than premium growth.” Premiums, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, rose by about 4 percent in the previous year, while this study’s findings point to a 6.5 percent annual increase in out-of-pocket costs. “There definitely seem to be more high-deductible plans available,” Adrion says. “Whether that’s what’s driving this or whether there’s a general trend toward greater percentages of coinsurance and patients being responsible for more coinsurance, it’s hard to say.” Further clouding the picture for consumers, rising healthcare costs are contributing to the growth of income inequality, according to a report from the Mercatus Center. “Most employers pay workers a combination of earnings and benefits, which include retirement plans and health insurance coverage,” the report said. “If benefits become more expensive, earnings growth will suffer.” The group, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, concluded that employer-provided healthcare benefits have grown much more rapidly than earnings, which has led to rising inequality. The report states: “Because healthcare is a smaller share of total compensation for top earners, their earnings grew nearly as quickly as their compensation and faster than earnings grew in the lower-earnings percentiles. Though rising healthcare costs eat away at wage growth for everyone, the effects will be largest for the working and middle class because their healthcare costs are so large relative to the rest of their compensation package.” Lessons drawn from the readings The cost of healthcare in the United States will continue to be a tremendous drain on our economy, and on lower-income individuals and families in particular, until we address some of the underlying structural problems. We are closer to seeing affordable, quality healthcare as a fundamental right, but we still have a ways to go. The fact that the first thing Jesus called his disciples to do in his name was to “cure the sick” should tell us how important this principle really is. Final thought in light of the news One thing people of faith can do for the sick that doesn’t involve premiums or co-pays is to visit them. Does your faith community have a ministry of outreach to the sick? If so, consider participating. If not, why not be the catalyst?

healthcare costs healing the sick economy

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Homily stories

28 Dec 2008 - Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Cycle B

Homesickness is a powerful disease for which there is no cure but going home. We may miss our own room or bed. Maybe we need the routine that we have grown accustomed to over the years. It could even be the food or the exact time of day we are used to eating. It includes a familiarity with just about everything around you that has suddenly become just a memory rather than a reality. But, most of all, homesickness is caused by the way we so intensely miss our family, even if we don’t necessarily want to admit it. After all, it may surprise us that we miss that little brother or sister we always considered a pain in the neck and who was always bugging us. It might be that we are starting to understand that Mom and Dad, despite their not fully understanding us, still love us in a way that leaves us empty being away from it. Maybe back home our parents and siblings are feeling the same about us. Mary is told clearly that her heart will be broken by Jesus’ fate. Sometimes the greater the love, the greater the pain. Last week when church was full, we felt the joy of being part of God’s family celebrating Christmas together. Now our family, no matter how perfect we try to make it, as Paul points out, begins to break apart. Church is not so full, and we are saddened. It can’t be Christmas every day. But we can embrace each other as the family of faith, whatever opportunities we have.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

home homesick family Suffering perfection expectations

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Homilist’s overview of February

05 Feb 2017 - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

February is Black History Month, which is why the Black Catholic Congress promotes the National Day for the African American Family annually on the first Sunday of February (5). This year it coincides with the Serra group’s World Day for Consecrated Life. We observe Saint John Paul II’s World Day for the Sick on the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes (11). World Marriage Day (12), an outgrowth of the Catholic Marriage Encounter, affirms the dignity of married life—two days short of Valentine’s Day, a celebration of love. The U.N.-sponsored World Day of Social Justice falls on our nation’s Presidents Day (20). Take a breath, and Lent begins with Ash Wednesday (March 1). Women’s History Month commences on the same day, and it’s also Zero Discrimination Day for AIDS victims. March 3 is an observance of both World Day of Prayer (an ecumenical women’s effort) and World Wildlife Day (U.N.-promoted). Good thing we’re light on saints this month! Consider highlighting historically significant Catholics of color in February, and important Catholic females in March in preaching and catechesis.

black history month world day for consecrated life world day for the sick world marriage day

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