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With the
flu season almost in full swing and with people living longer due to
good nutrition and pharmacology but having to deal with chronic ailments, today’s gospel story describing “Jesus the
Healer” is quite apropos.
The story begins
one Friday night focusing upon Peter’s mother-in-law who’s down and
out with a fever. It’s easy to imagine just how she’s feeling—out of
sorts, weary, aching, and wanting just to be left alone. But, instead of
considering the condition and desires of his mother-in-law, Peter has
brought a house full of guests for dinner following the Sabbath service
at the synagogue. Can you just imagine what’s running through her mind
and what she’s preparing to say to Peter when she’s well enough to take
him aside and give him a sizeable piece of her mind? In the middle of
her pain and suffering, however, Jesus extends his arm, takes Peter’s
mother-in-law’s hand, and raises her up! Her health not only is
restored; but, she also immediately sets about waiting on Peter’s
guests.
This miraculous
healing of Peter’s mother-in-law’s physical ailment—a fever, the gospel
tells us—serves to remind all of us about how selfish we can become when
we’re ill, how demanding we can become of others, and how ungrateful we
can be...because we’re focusing only on ourselves. Left unchecked,
it isn’t all that long before we’re hosting a pity party...oftentimes where we are the host and sole guest! In its
most malignant form, we translate our “Oh, woe is me!” into “What hell
I’m going to make life for all of those around me.”
While all of us
may be—and should be—sympathetic and bear with the infirmed in their
pain and suffering, the selfishness spawned by physical infirmity can
quickly transform into a spiritual infirmity if we should decide to
wallow in self-pity and to view our pain and suffering as something we
want everyone around us to experience and to bear as well.
It’s so easy when
we’re down and out to share in Job’s despondent mood. Pitying
ourselves, we conclude that life hasn’t provided everything we had hoped
for and we conclude that life is very harsh indeed. Life’s lessons teach
us that hardship, drudgery, pain, and suffering are our lot, so
much so it seems sometimes that only death will bring relief.
Like Job, as we
look around, survey, and take stock of our lives, our despondency brings
to mind all of the unfulfilled dreams, aspirations, and hopes we had
when we were young. With these now dashed by the harsh reality in which
we find ourselves—we’re mired somewhere amidst the wreckage of good
intentions and evil deeds—it’s sometimes difficult to sleep through the
night.
Sound familiar?
Here’s how Job
reflected upon his experience:
Is not man’s life on
earth a drudgery?....So I have been assigned months of misery, and
troubled nights have been allotted to me. If in bed I say, “When shall
I arise?” then the night drags on; I am filled with restlessness until
the dawn. My days…come to an end without hope….I shall not see
happiness again.
“Why have you
done this to me?” Job demands of God. “Why did you take my livelihood
away? Why did you allow my entire family to be destroyed? Why did you
make me the taunt of my neighbors? Why did you visit these dread
diseases upon me?”
Contemplating the
wreckage that provide the
“good life” and all
of those “good times,”
Job
demands of God: “What I’ve done to deserve this?”
“Why is it, God,” Job laments, “you doing this to
me?”
Job’s spiritual
disease—one not all that uncommon for people who love to host pity
parties for themselves—is that we attribute all of the evils besetting
us to God. We think, “Well, there’s got to be a reason for all of this. I
certainly can’t be the source of my pain and suffering. So, God,
you tell me why you are sending these my way. You tell me why I
deserve these!”
Like Job, the
physical and mental afflictions we experience can be considerable.
They can weigh heavily not only upon our bodies and minds but also our
hearts and our souls as well. For example, a physician may have
informed us that we cannot be cured of a terminal disease. Corporate
downsizing may have resulted in the loss of employment and income. A
teenager may have become involved in drugs and promiscuity. A beloved
spouse or, worse yet, a beloved son or daughter, has tragically died. “Why have you
done this to me? How can you allow this to happen to me?” we demand of
God. “I’ve played by the rules,” we say to justify ourselves. “It
wasn’t supposed to happen this way,” we complain.
This prayer—and
it is a prayer—flowing forth from the depths of one’s heart and soul
reveals something much deeper than any physical or mental pain or
suffering. It reveals the spiritual pain and suffering that is eating
away at the very core of our being. And, like Job, we might even demand
that God answer us and explain Himself to us.
Left unchecked,
this spiritual disease can devour one’s heart and soul as cynicism
breeds despair and hope vanishes, as cynicism breeds resignation and
faith evaporates, and as cynicism breeds selfishness and love grows
cold. We may conclude, like Job, that it would have been better had we
not been born.
But, we must not
forget, it was the darkness that made it possible for
Job to appreciate the gift of salvation. And, it is in this sense that
Job’s story provides a corrective to anyone who desires a superficial,
“cheery” religion that ignores the deep-seated pain and suffering that
appears to be part and parcel of our human condition. After all, we can
never know the depth of God’s saving power if we never realize the depth
of our need, and especially when evil besets us! We tend to
neglect God when everything in life is rolling along swimmingly.
It’s when things head south that we decide to turn to God and we make
demands of Him.
Job’s days didn’t
end in darkness. But, Job first had to get his thinking straightened
out. “Who are you, creature,” the prophet Elihu demanded of Job, “to
question God, your Creator?” Thinking about this, Job realized his
malignant attitude and atoned of his arrogance. And that is when Job
discovered himself being renewed and blessed as God transformed Job’s
despondency into faith, his despair into hope, and his self-centeredness into love of God and neighbor.
Likewise, Peter’s
mother-in-law learned much the same lesson. After Jesus reached out,
raised up, and healed her physical infirmity that, left unchecked, would
have transformed into a spiritual infirmity that would destroy her soul,
Peter’s mother-in-law stopped focusing upon herself and immediately set
about serving the needs of others. “I have come for this,” Jesus
told his disciples.
[I can’t resist
interjecting the point that many sons-in-law might be making of this: “I
have come for this” means that Jesus came to heal my crazy
mother-in-law. But, at the same time, pointing out his selfish and
self-centered attitude where Peter didn’t appear to give one hoot about
his mother-in-law’s illness, she would very likely concur with the
aphorism: “Behind every successful husband stands an utterly stupefied
mother-in-law.” Sorry for interjecting these jests. I just
couldn’t help myself.]
So, one question
today’s scripture readings ask of us and a question that we need to answer is:
Do we love God because we will get a reward for loving God, or do we
love God because God is God?
Because many of
us might profess that we really love God but don’t, as is evident when
pain and suffering beset us and we demand that God explain himself to
us. And, when we find ourselves doing this—focusing upon ourselves and
not love of God of neighbor—like Job and Peter’s mother-in-law, we need
to recognize our malignant attitude and atone for our self-centered
arrogance. That is when we will discover ourselves being renewed and
blessed as God transforms our despondency into faith, our despair into
hope, and our self-centeredness into love of God and neighbor.
Today’s scripture
readings remind us that God is with us, even when we believe God
is absent when pain and suffering beset us. The scripture readings also raise for our consideration a spiritual
challenge we face, namely, not to succumb to a malignant, spiritual
disease that can destroy one’s heart and soul. “Love God with all of
your mind, with all of your heart, and with all of your strength” means
confronting the evils besetting us by relying upon God “who [will] heal
the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds….[and] sustain the lowly,” as
the Psalmist taught.
As disciples, we
demonstrate love of God—even when we have the flu or chronic illnesses—not by wishing or demanding that God take away
our pain and suffering. No, we demonstrate love of God by imitating Jesus who went “to a lonely
place” where he was “absorbed in prayer.” Meeting God in the lonely
place of pain and suffering—sometimes the excruciating reality we have to
confront—and being absorbed in prayer that is intent upon God rather than
intent upon ourselves. This is the sure place where we will learn to accept and to
carry our cross as we make the decision to serve others rather than to
host pity parties for ourselves.
And, for all of
those who are upset because Jesus healed Peter’s
mother-in-law so that
she could wait on the guests and want to know why Peter didn’t
wait hand and foot on his mother-in-law, perhaps I will have the
opportunity to address that question in three years, the next time the
Cycle B readings are read. In the mean time, seek God in the
lonely places, be absorbed in prayer that is intent upon God, and serve
others!
A brief commercial
break...
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HOMILY
