+ Jesus had not only the knack, but also the authority to put people exactly in their places. The one who reads hearts, reads minds also. He calls the leader of the synagogue a hypocrite because in his intellectual blindness he also suffered from the spiritual blindness of being incapable letting his heart have a say in the matter at hand: the charity involved in healing a woman on a Sabbath. Yesterday we spoke about Jesus ability to easily cure these two types of blindness on any day of the week. It seems this leader would not have sought out such a cure for himself; and today he is actually jealous of one who encounters the compassionate Christ and accepts his offer of healing!
It is interesting to note that Jesus himself calls sickness and disease "bondage under Satan" – which is exactly what it is: not necessarily as a result of personal sin – but as part of the sinful condition that we all share in as sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. This condition will to some residual degree be always with us (and it can be aggravated by our personal sin) – and it is directly related to the presence of evil in the world – and calls for the spiritual angle of healing to always walk hand in hand with the physical. Treating a patient medically without involving spiritual aid is really like entrusting your automobile to a mechanic and then telling him he can't use his deepest intuition in solving problems with your vehicle. Sometimes it takes more than just following the instructions in the manuals to get the desired results.
The spirit of the first reading today tells us just how important we are, and how deserving we are of the very best care from God – in whatever way it might play itself out daily. By means of our baptism we are now sons and daughters of God – eligible to call out to him "Abba, Father!" This is astounding when you really stop to think about it! GOD IS OUR FATHER! WE ARE HIS CHILDREN! WE ARE BROTHERS AND SISTERS! And since this is so, when we follow the example of our true and never-failing brother, Jesus, in his SUFFERING and DEATH, then we will share undeniably in his GLORY and EVERLASTING LIFE! And the suffering involved means putting to death the things in our lives rooted in the flesh, in the material, in the earthy; and latching on to what is of the spirit, of the immaterial, of the heavenly: such as a life of sacrificial self-giving! This was the formula that merited our salvation; this is the right formula for us this day in order to participate in it!
You word, O Lord, is truth; consecrate us in the truth.
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