+ We see a continuation today of our gospel theme of Jesus’
healing. Jesus,
the Great High Priest, our first
reading tells us, heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath.
Just what day of the week is
an appropriate day to heal, or not to heal?
This healing, on this day, is
met by the Pharisees’ hardness of heart, which cause Jesus anger and grief.
What is so simple, and so obvious can sometimes be hijacked by what is
dishonest and self-seeking.
“The Pharisees immediately
then took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.” This about this? Death
for doing a good deed, and a miraculous one at that – especially on a Sabbath –
the day of the Lord of All Healings and Restorations, Renewals, Regenerations
and Resurrections!
But Christ is anointed with “the
power of a life that cannot be destroyed,” or even delayed. Jesus can and does
heal when he wants to, so to demonstrate the power of the Resurrection – his Power
over Death, Decay and Disease.
Our withered, hard hearts, if
we choose to league in with the Pharisees, will be healed only by the piercing
of Jesus’ Heart – and it will be pierced – and an ocean of mercy of forgiveness
and compassion with gush forth from it: may we then be open, literally open of
mind and heart to receive these life-restoring graces.
He is
a priest forever, and a High Priest at that, in the line of Melchizedek.
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