Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
There was a time where due to various family and friends’ illnesses, I’d been around hospitals and doctors a lot. Being ill is no fun, but I’ve noticed two things. First, even though what brought people to the hospital is a physical illness, usually they start wanting to talk about their lives beyond just the illness. Maybe it’s the vulnerability that comes with being sick, but I’ve had a fair number of conversations lately about emotions (being angry or tired of being sick) and relationships (wanting to patch up broken ones). The second thing I’ve noticed is that people pretty much always seem better off--emotionally, spiritually and sometimes even physically—when someone takes the time to pray with them.
It makes me realize what a great gift we have in the sacrament of anointing of the sick, and even in some other sacraments that are related. I think today’s scriptures really speak to those sacraments and their importance.
In the readings today we are presented with an image of Jesus as healer—both as someone who heals us physically but also someone who cleanses us from sin. Physical healing is a sign of the inward, spiritual healing of those who come to Jesus and become his disciples.
In the first reading, Paul reminds us that we are called not just to profess our faith but to live it out in concrete ways. This means that we allow ourselves to be cleansed of all that is contrary to the way God would have us live. It’s interesting that Paul would focus on Christians suing each other as a symptom of the failure of the Christian community in Corinth. It seems to represent for him a failure of Christians to settle their differences in mutual compromise, while instead trying to use the secular (Roman) law to take advantage of each other. A community in which such practices are widespread is unhealthy—not the loving community envisioned in the gospel.
In the gospel reading, we see the power of Jesus to heal the physical ailments of people, which is also physical sign of his power to cleanse people from sin. This aspect of Jesus’ healing is directly related to many of the Church’s sacraments. In baptism we are washed and cleansed of sin and reborn into new life in Christ; in the sacrament of reconciliation we confess our sins and receive absolution; and the sacrament of anointing of the sick confers physical and spiritual healing.
Today, let us reflect on the importance of the sacraments for healing in our own lives. Let us also thank God for the gift of the sacraments.
- Joel Schickel