Second Sunday of Lent (March 4^th 2012)   

Mark 9:2-10

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 What motivates us to give things up during Lent? Do we do it for superficial reasons?

2. In what way can an appreciation for the beauty of Christ help us to deny ourselves?

3. Am I inclined to think that the Christian life is one of fulfilling certain rules or obligations? Could it be that Christianity, instead, is founded on beauty and joy?

4. In the Gospel, the disciples see the beauty of Christ, then they are told to listen to Him. Why is listening to the word of God so important?

5. In what way can the beauty of the Transfiguration motivate us to walk in obedience towards the even greater beauty of the Resurrection?

The Transfiguration has an important role in motivating us during Lent

The Gospel of the second Sunday of Lent is always the story of the Transfiguration. Jesus makes known to his disciples the glory that will be his after the Resurrection. They see him in conversation with Moses and Elijah, who represent the Old Testament. This event has an important role in our journey towards Easter. Lent is a time of austerity and purification. If we take it seriously and make it a time of fasting, prayer and almsgiving, then Lent becomes a battle against one's own deficiencies. We can only enter this battle if we have a clear and worthwhile goal. Jesus' foreshadowing to his disciples of his passion, death and resurrection demonstrates that we all have need of motivation in our journey towards Easter. It is a waste of time forcing ourselves to do a series of penitential acts, if we do not have sincere motivation of some kind. In everyday life, people continually renounce things in order to achieve a goal. For a moment of pleasure, in order to advance their careers, and for a multitude of superficial reasons, people are willing to make great sacrifices.

The correct motivation for Lenten penance is to increase our appreciation for the beauty of Christ

For us, it is very important that we have the correct motivation for following Jesus. And this motivation is put into words by Peter. Let us recount the story. Jesus takes the three disciples apart and gives them an intimate experience of that which lies ahead in the future. His face changes and his clothes become whiter than anything on earth. It is clearly an experience of the supernatural, of something that defies the human capacity for understanding. Moses was the giver of the Law and Elijah was the greatest of the prophets. Upon beholding this wonderful scene, Peter speaks those words that are at the heart of Christian motivation; "Rabbi, it is wonderful (or beautiful) for us to be here!" The reason why we are willing to struggle with our own flesh, with the world and with evil, is because we have discovered the beauty of Christ. Christianity is founded on the encounter with the most beautiful of the sons of men. The reason why people are willing to make sacrifices and confront all the difficulties of the mission God has given them is because they has been illuminated to the depths of their being by Christ. It is simply wonderful to be with Christ and that is all the motivation that one needs.

        It is essential that we (and the younger generation in particular) be grounded on the revelation of the beauty of the face of Christ, the beauty of the one who became unsightly out of love of us. His beauty is not the beauty of a beautician's parlour, nor of the cover of a glossy magazine, but a different type of beauty altogether. It is the beauty of one who knows how to love and who is the wisdom of God.

Christianity is not founded on obligation but on beauty and joy

When Peter speaks, he is using the language of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (or Tents), which may have been celebrated at that time of year. He says: "Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah". The Feast of Tabernacles was a very joyful festival in which tents were erected and the people recalled the time spent by Israel in the desert. They listed to the Word of God and celebrated the saving action of God. This joy is concentrated in the contemplation of Peter on the scene of the Transfiguration, leading him to say, "It is wonderful to be here!" This significance of this statement cannot be over-estimated. Christianity is not founded on obligation, nor is it a philosophical or ideological doctrine. Christianity is founded on beauty and its goal is the joy of humanity. We are called to be in a beautiful place and to be with someone whose company is beautiful. This beauty must be proclaimed and defended robustly.

Seeing is not enough. We must also listen. The Christian life must move from the contemplation of beauty to the acceptance of God's word in our hearts

After the period of contemplation, Peter sees a cloud and hears the voice of God: "This is my Son, the beloved. Listen to him". In other words, Jesus is the one who is loved above all, and if we wish to share in his beauty then we must listen to him. It is interesting that the Gospel account switches from that which is seen to that which is heard. First the disciples see the beauty of God, then they listen to the voice of God. That which we see with our eyes is aesthetic, whilst the word of God is something that has to be welcomed into our hearts. That which is purely visual remains external to us. It can motivate us and make us wish to possess it, but the word is something that has the ability to enter into us. The word "obedience" derives from the Latin "to listen", and it means to listen truly, or to carry out what has been said. The beauty of Christ is something that must be listened to in this sense. It is not simply something aesthetic but involves the reception of a word that enters into my heart and transforms itself into practice. In fact Jesus says: "Everything that you have seen here will come to pass".

May the beauty of the Transfiguration motivate us to walk in obedience towards the even greater beauty of the Resurrection

They come down from the mountain and he tells them not to recount what has happened until he is risen from the dead. In the Lenten season, it is essential that we continue to relate this event to the journey towards Easter. The disciples ask themselves what "rising from the dead" could mean. That which we experience in a given moment is always small compared to what God is actually doing in that moment, and to what he will accomplish in the future. The beauty that Peter has contemplated is a taste of something even greater: the experience of the resurrection. As we journey in Lent, let us contemplate the beauty of the Transfiguration. May it motivate us to accept God's word and walk in obedience towards the even greater beauty that God is preparing for us: namely, the resurrection, the fully-illuminated life that awaits us in heaven.

In summary:

1. The Transfiguration reveals the beauty of Christ. It is the beauty of Christ that is the goal of the Christian life. Our journey in life is a journey towards a place that is beautiful and where we can be in the company of the One that is beautiful.

2. In Lent we make sacrifices, not in order to lose weight, or simply to give up bad habits that damage our health, but in order to confront our own poverty and to appreciate the beauty of Christ.

3. The beauty of Christ is not the beauty of a glossy magazine cover, but the beauty of one who was disfigured out of love for us.

4. Christianity is not founded on obligation, nor on a philosophical or ideological doctrine. It is directed towards attaining the joy of being in the presence of the beauty of God.

5. God the Father speaks from the clouds and asks the disciples to listen to Jesus. In order to attain the joy of the beauty of Christ, we must listen to the word of the Lord and allow it to enter our hearts and transform our lives.

6. The beauty of the Transfiguration motivates us to walk in obedience towards the even greater beauty of the Resurrection.

First Sunday of Lent (February 26^th 2012)   

Mark 1:12-15

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Why did Jesus have to spend forty days in the desert? What value does a desert experience have for confronting the evil or unresolved issues in our lives?

2. In what way can self-denial help us to confront the demons within us?

3. Who or what are the angels that surround me on a daily basis, ready and waiting to assist me in the process of transformation that is symbolised by the desert?

4. Is it possible for a person to love or serve others if he has not gone through the desert experience of removing the obstacles to love that litter our souls?

5. Once Jesus passes through the desert, he proclaims that the Kingdom of God is here. Can an experience in the desert assist me in making the Good News the focal point of my existence?

Jesus' time in the desert recalls Israel's forty years in the wilderness

The Gospel of Mark is probably the oldest of the Gospels. In this passage, Mark gives a description in stark simple terms of the temptation of Jesus in the desert. This account is elaborated by Matthew and Luke into the story of the three temptations of Christ. According to Mark, the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert. It is the Spirit that is responsible for the fact that Jesus undertook this venture. Just before this passage, we had learnt of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. In this way, John had fulfilled his own mission and baptized Jesus, and now the public mission of Jesus was beginning. In order to begin that mission, Jesus had to pass through the desert. The importance of the image of the desert in the Old Testament is one that cannot be underestimated. It refers to the liberation of the people of Israel and their forty years in the desert after emerging from the waters of the Red Sea. Jesus, in fact, would spend forty days in the desert. In the case of Israel, it was the Lord who led the people to the desert. The question that presents itself is why did they have to spend these forty years in the wilderness? It is possible to walk from Egypt to the Holy land in a relatively short time. What sort of poor navigation system did the Israelites have that it took them so long to get to the Promised Land?

           

The desert is a symbol of a period of transformation that is essential for redemption

The path undertaken by the Israelites to the Promised Land was a journey of transformation, and not just the business of getting from A to B. They simply were not ready for the Promised Land. The Hebrew rabbis used to say that it took one night to liberate Israel from Egypt, but it took forty years to liberate Egypt from the hearts of the Israelites. Often it is easier to free a person from a grave situation than it is to teach them to walk in the way of the truth.

            Jesus went into the desert because the redemption of humanity requires this stage of transformation. Between evil and good - between non-salvation and salvation - there is a process of radical change. The desert in the Old Testament is really a code word for change, or rite of passage. It is not a location where one might live. It is a place that must to be passed through to get somewhere else.

Sometimes it is better to avoid evil, but at other times we must confront it head on

Jesus passed forty days in the desert being tempted by Satan. This is a surprising revelation. Why did Jesus have to be tempted by the devil? Wouldn't it have been better if he had avoided going into the desert to be subjected to temptation of this sort? It is true that it is usually a good idea to avoid situations where we are presented with opportunities for evil, but it is also true that some things need to be confronted head on. We need to be able to handle temptation. Being able to avoid situations of temptation is fine, but we cannot go through life like fugitives, running from certain situations, with evil like a predator just one step behind us. Jesus wished to be able to give a definitive response to temptation, to the daily reality of being subjected to deception and delusion.

In the desert our demons come to the fore, but so do the angels that are waiting to help us

The Gospel tells us that Jesus was with the wild animals in the desert, while the angels served him. Sooner or later we will all be led by the Spirit to enter the desert and confront our demons. The Lord Jesus has gone before us and shown us the way. Once we are in the desert, we will find that it is a far from empty place. The wild animals - the demons that plague us - will soon appear and make their presence felt. To enter the desert is to enter the fray and confront those things within us that are unresolved. And, by the same token, when we enter the desert it is essential that we be attentive and discover the angels that are waiting to serve us. We have a multitude of such angels around us, things that support us and can become reference points for our existence - people and things whose job it is to help us choose the path of life and overcome our demons.

The Kingdom is entered after passing through the desert. We learn to love after we have confronted the obstacles to love inside us

Our existence is not as dull as might sometimes appear. The Lord has not given us life so that we might accomplish little or nothing. Life, instead, is a great challenge! This short passage from the Gospel comes to a climax with the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. We have been given life so that we might enter the Kingdom of God. Before entering the Kingdom there is a battle that must be fought and a desert that must be passed through. Woe betide those who raise their children without preparing them for the difficulties of life! Woe betide those who think life is all about physical wellbeing and being in a state of material happiness! This is an all too-prevalent fallacy. People will only learn how to love when they learn how to overcome the obstacles to love in their hearts. In order to be able to serve others, we must battle the demons inside us that stop us from serving others. We must learn to be in the desert, to deny ourselves, to be the leaders of our own existence rather than just followers. We must not underestimate the importance of this stage of passing through the desert before arriving at the Kingdom of God.

The door of the Kingdom is on the other side of the desert

Jesus announces that "the time has come". This indicates that a time of fullness is here, an era that is filled with grace. This time of fullness appears once we have passed through the time of emptiness in the desert. Once we have gone through that wilderness, confronted the demons and learned how to discern the angels that truly help us, the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven comes into sight. In other words, the desert teaches us that there is one thing only that must be clung to, and that is the Good News of the Gospel, which is the love of God for us. We must cling to this one thing in order to be converted and transformed. Removed from the chaos of our existence, the desert teaches us where the true light is. No matter how we may have been tempted or tried, the one thing that we need to do is believe in the Good News. We have all received the Good News in one way or another, and we are still receiving it. We must be converted, rid ourselves of the negative thoughts that come from the evil one, and believe in that point of reference, that sure light, the Good News that gives meaning to our entire existence.

Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 19^th 2012)        

Mark 2:1-12

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Do I believe that faith is an individual relationship between God and me? Or is it something that needs to be cultivated in me by others?

2. In what way can I become a "stretcher-bearer" for others, leading them to the Lord?

3. When I approach the Lord, am I more preoccupied with the healing of my physical ailments, or with the healing of my spiritual ills?

4. What is more important: to heal someone's illness or to forgive their sins?

Faith is not an individual thing. We need others to bring us to the Lord

The Gospel story presents us with the image of a sick man being carried by others to the Lord. Being led to the Lord by others is a necessary element in the life of faith. Relationship with God is not a purely individual thing between him and me. Instead, it is necessary that we be carried to the Lord by people who have more faith than we do. In the Gospel passage, when the people strip the roof in order to lower the paralytic inside, Jesus takes into consideration their faith, not the faith of the paralytic himself. We are not saved because of the level of personal relationship that we have with the Lord. On the contrary, we have need of the faith of ours to bring our salvation to fulfilment. We receive that faith from others in the first place. Often, our faith life is at a standstill and we need someone else to bring us forward. We need to be carried on someone else's shoulders for part of the journey. The dream of autonomy in the faith is an illusion that takes on nowhere. We all need stretcher-bearers to bring us closer to the Lord, and we all need to become stretcher-bearers for others one day. We must develop a faith that will be capable of illuminating the unhappy lives of others who do not have the courage to go on by themselves.

Sometimes the path that leads to healing can be tortuous

The paralytic was carried by four stretcher-bearers and entered the house in unusual circumstances. It was impossible to enter by the door, so the roof had to be dismantled before he could be lowered down. Often it is the case that it is difficult to enter by the door. Sometimes the normal channels are not accessible and it is not straightforward to come to the stage of being healed. We have need of someone who knows an alternative way and who is willing to carry us. The paralytic was lowered from a height and risked being dropped. This story highlights the level of support that the stretcher-bearers would have had to give to the sick man. It is essential to trust the one who carries us to the Lord. It is often necessary to expend great effort to bring someone to the faith. Often we can be closed to Christ and it may be necessary for others to discover an unusual way to bring us to him.

A healthy spirit and a sick body is better than a healthy body and a sick spirit

When the man is placed in the centre of the room, Jesus looks at him and says, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Jesus sees the faith of the ones who brought the sick man in. Seeing that faith, he goes to the heart of the problem, which is not the physical healing of the man. The heart of the matter is his interior healing. To physically heal a man who is sick within would be to deceive him terribly. To have a healthy body and a diseased spirit is much more dangerous than having a sick body and a healthy spirit. Saint Clare of Assisi lived for many years as a paralytic, unable to rise from bed, and during that time she did incredible good for the whole world. Blessed John Paul II possibly did more evangelisation in his last years, with a sick body but a spirit full of light, than he did when he was fully mobile and able to go wherever he wanted.

What is more important: to heal someone's illness or to forgive their sins?

No-one would wish to trivialise the significance of physical suffering. Jesus can heal physical suffering, but his priority is to heal the interior. It is illness of the spirit that is the origin of much suffering in the world. In the Gospel passage, Jesus proclaims that the man is forgiven, because the healing of the heart is achieved by forgiveness. What makes a man healthy is the forgiveness of his sins. No-one can offer this kind of treatment but God alone. Psychotherapeutic techniques can rearrange the elements of a person's mental life, but they cannot dissolve sin. Sin and evil can only be cured by God. God knows how to create and he knows how to regenerate. Only he knows how to give new life.

Only God can treat the illnesses of the soul

This, in fact, is the reason why the scribes are scandalized. "Who can forgive sin but God alone?" they ask. "This man is blaspheming!" In reality these scribes are stating something that is perfectly true. They are outraged by the fact that Jesus assumes a role that is reserved for God only. Their outrage would be justified if, in that moment, they were not in the presence of the Son of God himself. In the rabbinic tradition, not even the Messiah himself was considered to have the power to forgive sins. The Messiah, according to that tradition, was expected to be a man, elected by God, with the role of saving his people. Here, the scribes found themselves in the presence of something much greater, the precious Son of God.

Jesus' healing of the paralytic reveals the wonderful news that sin is not the last word

Jesus is capable of healing the paralytic and is capable of forgiving sins. This is the unexpected good news that is revealed to the scribes and to all present. To show that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he says to the paralytic, "Get up and walk". This act of Jesus bears witness to the wonderful news that sin is not the last word. It is not true that our mistakes remain encrusted deep in our essence and cannot be eliminated. A marriage that is in crisis because of errors made in the past can be made healthy. If it is true that a man can be healed of physical paralysis, then it is true that a man can be healed of his sin. This fact has become the constant miracle of the Christian life, the miracle of conversion. Throughout Christian history we have had the constant miracle of persons being carried to the Lord, who stand up and become capable of carrying others.

            We must allow the faith of the church to carry us and guide us. We must allow the faith of these "stretcher-bearers" to lead us to these experiences of healing and pardon. There is an entire school of saints, a multitude of wonderful Christians, a long history of the faith that demonstrates that God can dissolve sin in the heart of humanity. No matter how grave the sin we may have committed, no matter how ugly or shameful our deeds, God's power is infinitely greater.

Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 12^th 2012)    

Mark 1:40-45

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Do I believe that drawing close to Christ will have unpleasant consequences for my lifestyle? Or do I believe that it will bring healing and liberation?

2. Am I inclined to think that I have to be holy before God will do great things for me? Or do I believe that God will touch me when I am still unclean?

3. Does God's will for me involve unpleasant duties that I have to carry out? Or is it something primarily directed towards bringing me to the fullness of life?

4. Do I believe that I can achieve great things while I am still in a state of infirmity before God? Or is healing by God a necessary stage that must be gone through before I can live the healthy life?

5. Is the Lord's action in our lives directed towards attaining the adulation of the multitudes, or genuine encounter with individuals?

A Gospel story that is full of significant gestures

The Gospel stories recount concrete events in the life of Jesus, but they are placed before us so that we can connect them to aspects of our own existence. In this story recounting the healing of a leper, there are a number of gestures that are highly significant for us, but they might go unnoticed in a superficial reading of the text. A leper approaches Jesus and pleads before him on his knees. This act of placing himself before the Lord on his knees is the act of one who supplicates or prays. The suffering of the leper has transformed itself into prayer. Who is this leper, and what leads him to make this beautiful entreaty, "If you want to, you can heal me"? The condition of leprosy is one of the most terrible diseases imaginable. One's very flesh is in a state of decomposition while one is still alive. The Law of Moses required that lepers live separately from normal human habitation. When non-lepers drew near, the leper was required to cry out "Unclean!  Unclean!" The leper, thus, was obliged to denounce himself, and the condemnation for his condition was one of isolation.

The leper recognizes that we need to approach Jesus and be close to Him

In the case that we consider today in the Gospel, the solitude of the leper becomes the springboard that drives him to approach Jesus. The law demands that he remain isolated and refrain from contact with others, but, in the case of Jesus, the leper ignores the rules and draws near. This Gospel has interesting parallels with the Gospel that we read two weeks ago in which the unclean spirit in the synagogue cried out to Jesus, "Stay away from us! You have come to destroy us!" In today's Gospel, we have man who is "unclean", and it is he who approaches Jesus looking for healing. These two readings inspire us to reflect on just who Jesus is. Is he the one we should keep away from, as the evil spirit believed, or is he the one that we should approach for help?

The leper recognizes that Jesus wants what is good for us

The leper comes close to Jesus and says, "If you want to, you can heal me". The evil spirit believed that Jesus would destroy him, but the leper believes that Jesus can free him, do good for him, give new life to him, defeat the death that is already making itself evident in his diseased flesh. This prayer arises from an awareness of solitude and abandonment. Genuine prayer always arises from the awareness of one's own vulnerability, one's own limits, one's own emptiness, from the desire to escape from one's own condition of isolation. This leper knows how to pray, and his prayer touches the heart of Jesus who has compassion for him. Here is revealed the motive and the source of our liberation: the compassion of the Lord. Jesus is able to understand the darkness of our isolation and his only desire is for our good.

The gestures of Jesus are a liturgy in themselves

In response to this anguish, Jesus makes a series of gestures that constitute a kind of liturgy in themselves. He stretches out his hand, touches the diseased man and says, "I want to. Be healed". The Christian liturgy is composed of gestures and words, and here we have a gesture and a word. It is not enough to say, "I want to. Be healed". And it is not enough simply to touch the leper. A simple word in itself, or a simple caress in itself, is not sufficient. What is needed instead is a relationship in all of its fullness.

            In this act of touching the leper, Jesus breaks the regulations. It was not permitted by law to approach a leper, and it was certainly not permitted to touch him. Jesus touches the leper before he is healed. He touches him while he is still sick, while he is still putrid. He touches him and says "I want to! Be healed!"

God's will for us is not something negative 

There is a play on words here. The leper says "If you want to, you can heal me". Jesus replies, "I want to. Be healed". This play on words reveals what it is that God wants to do. It uncovers the will of God for us. This poor leper has understood that the Lord wishes for his good, and Jesus confirms that with his reply. We are often inclined to think that the will of God is something that makes unpleasant demands on us. When we say "Your will be done", we feel that we are handing our lives over to God so that he can do things with us that we do not want. This is simply not true! The will of God coincides perfectly with his compassion. The will of God is that we be healed. The will of God is that process by which we are touched by God, made clean, and led to a state of life that is finally free.

Healing is a necessary stage that must be gone through before I can live the healthy life

It is important to note that healing is a fundamental step in the spiritual life. Sometimes we think that we can do great things, achieve great spiritual results, without passing through the stage of healing. That process of being touched in heart and soul, of being tended to in the depths of our being is a necessary stage in life. We cannot pass from a condition of abandonment directly to the condition of being blessed by God. Jesus stretches out his hand and says to us, "I want to! Be healed!" In this brief interaction there is concentrated the entire process of approaching God, prayerful supplication, and being responded to by Jesus who wishes to heal us.

            The term "purify" that appears in this passage derives from an expression that signifies "not to be of different natures; to be of a single nature". Pure water means that there is nothing else present but water. Before becoming an ethical term, "purify" was a chemical term, and it meant "to be of one reality only". This leper was a man who had death present in his flesh. To be purified signified to be made completely alive. This process of attaining the fullness of life is what Jesus wants. We must become ever more aware that God has only one wish for us, and that is our salvation. The grace that the Lord offers for us is for our salvation, and no other motive.

Jesus does not seek the adulation of the masses, but encounter with the individual

The leprosy disappears from the leper and Jesus gives him a stern warning. In fact he sends him away quite severely! Why does Jesus behave this way? We might expect someone to banish a leper from his sight while the leper still has the disease, but Jesus banishes him when he is healed! It is important that we know how to depart from Christ, in the sense that we must know how to enter into a life of obedience; to pass from the stage of healing to the stage of living the healthy life; to pass from the stage of being looked after by Christ to the stage of being able to fulfil our mission. The leper is instructed to show himself to the priest in order to give witness to what has been accomplished in him. Once the leper goes to the priest and is examined by him, the priest is in a position to allow the leper to re-enter the life of the normal healthy person. But the man disobeys! This demonstrates that it is possible to be healed, and still fail to live the life that should follow naturally from the act of being healed. It is possible to continue along the wrong way, despite having received immense graces from the Lord. The desire of fame, of seeking attention for the graces received, can become more important than the graces themselves. In this respect, the Gospel text gives us great insight into the person of our Lord. Previously, it was the leper who was obliged to remain in isolated and deserted places. Now it is Jesus who retreats into the desert because the leper did not maintain the reserve that has been asked of him. Jesus has no love of fame. He knows the mentality of the masses, who search - not for authentic things - but for things that are of popular appeal. He withdraws from this multitude because he wishes to encounter each individual personally. The holy people of God is composed of individuals who have had this personal encounter of grace with the Lord

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 5^th 2012)     

Mark 1:29-39
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel
1 Do I consider encounter with God to be something that occurs primarily in church, or is it something that occurs at every moment in life?
2. When I ask the Lord for healing, do I expect instant results regardless of my personal behaviour? Or am I prepared to take Jesus’ hand and follow him?
3. Do I believe that wellness consists in the ability to serve others?
4. Do I believe that I can achieve great things by myself? Or is the fulfilment of our mission dependent on fidelity to God's plan?

The arena of God’s action is not just holy places but also our own homes

This passage recounts a series of events from a day in the life of Jesus, and, through it, we learn a great deal about his mission. Jesus leaves the synagogue (having just healed the man with the impure spirit) and goes to the house of Simon. This movement is highly significant. The action of God's Messiah shifts from the synagogue – a place associated with the word of God – to a normal human dwelling. The movement of God's action from the synagogue to the home is a historic movement that corresponds to the advent of Christianity. Jesus wishes to enter the house of Simon, and into all of our homes, because there are things that he wants to accomplish there. The arena in which God enters our lives is no longer exclusively the sacred places, but the very places where we live. Holy places can assist us to pray in a concentrated way, but, with the advent of Christ, it is no longer the location that decides whether God is present or not. The Lord comes into our most personal of places seeking genuine encounter with us.

To be healed by the Lord, we must allow him to take our lives in hand
Jesus enters the house of Simon and what does he find? Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever. And what does he find generally in our homes? Sickness, difficulty, people who cannot move, people who are trapped inside the unresolved problems of their existence, people who are nailed down by the things they are fixated with.
            Approaching the sick woman, Jesus takes her by the hand. Sometimes we are not healed because we don’t allow Jesus to take us by the hand. We need to allow ourselves to be taken by the hand and do the things that Jesus wants us to do. Healing cannot happen until we become obedient to the Lord and allow him to lead us by the hand. While we persist with our own projects, as long as we refuse to permit Jesus to guide our actions, then we remain infirm with sicknesses that never go away.

The goal of God’s saving action is to enable us to serve others
In the Gospel, the fever leaves the woman and she begins to serve them. The point is that the goal of God’s saving action is to enable people to serve. The person who is well is the one who knows how to serve, the one who is able to take care of others. This world can be divided into two types of people: those who need care and those who know how to care for others; those who are black holes of needs without end, who demand constant affection and attention, and those who have finally been healed and are able to care for others; those who devour life and those who give life. In the Gospel, the woman first had need of care, but then she becomes someone able to give care. What a beautiful image! All of us are well when we are able to serve! All of us are fit and alive when we are able to take care of others!

Wellness consists in the capacity to serve others
The human being is called to paternity and maternity. The woman in the Gospel was a mother, a person who had once been an expert in taking care of others, but who was no longer capable of serving. In our time, members of the older generation are often in this situation.  They fail to create a caring role for themselves. Many elderly people pass their time doing things that are vain and of little value. The children ask “Where is Grandma?” and they find that she is busy doing a course of salsa, or is on the phone six hours a day! The image that elderly people desperately need to rediscover and nurture is that of the adult who knows how to serve, who has attained wisdom, and who is available to others. This is the kind of senior citizen that this world needs more and more as the average age of our population grows. One of the problems of the older generation is that elderly people often feel useless. They think that no-one needs them. This demonstrates that acts of service towards others makes us feel whole. We must learn how to serve others. The fullness of life is maternity, paternity, being available to devote oneself to the needs of others.

The goodness that we are capable of achieving depends on our fidelity to God’s plan

Once Jesus heals the sick woman, the occupants of the entire town come searching for him. The house is assailed by requests from the infirm, and from those possessed by demons. Jesus heals the sick and drives out the demons, ordering them to be silent. The success of Jesus in curing people means that everyone now wants him. So what does he do? He rises early in the morning while it is still dark and goes to a lonely place to pray. When the disciples eventually find him they say “Everyone is looking for you!” Why does Jesus go away in private to pray like this? In the Gospels, Jesus is always shown praying at the moments that are fundamental to his mission, and when he is tempted. We see this while he is in the desert, when he is at Gethsemane, and when the crowd comes to carry him off and make him king. At the times when his life could take a wrong direction, at moments when he must remain faithful to God’s plan, Jesus unites himself with the Father in prayer. In the words of the disciples “Everyone is looking for you!” the temptation is evident. “You’ve made it! You’re a huge success! You’re no longer an obscure carpenter from Galilee!”
Jesus replies “Let us leave here. I haven’t come for this, but to preach also in other places”. As soon as Jesus attains great success he removes himself from the success, demonstrating that he has come not to do his own will but that of the Father, and so fulfil his great mission. We too must be on guard against the temptations that come with success. We must be wary of remaining only with the things in our lives that work well, instead of confronting the challenging things that life places before us, so that the good that we are all capable of doing might be uncovered.