Mark 1:29–39 

In a commentary on St Mark's Gospel St Bede makes the following observation about the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, “The health which is conferred at the command of the Lord returns at once entire, accompanied with such strength that she is able to minister to those of whose help she had before stood in need.”  The miracle involved Jesus's directly touching her, taking her by the hand and helping her up, healed and ready to serve (v. 31).  This simple and seemingly minor incident and healing in Jesus's ministry reveals so much about who he is and why he came. Only God himself could heal as Jesus healed; only divine power could overturn the laws of nature and the grip of a fever and suffering so effortlessly and so immediately.

Christian revelation teaches us  that we are in need of healing because we are fallen and wounded by sin.  Each one of us is sick by sin. For sure, by God's grace baptism removes the stain of original sin but we bear its scar and we are wounded, subject to weakness and temptation during our life on earth.  The great apostle Paul, in heartfelt anguish and desperation, cried out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver  me from this body of death?”  (Rom. 7:24). Through baptism we are immersed in Jesus’s death and resurrection, but our life on earth is a struggle to overcome the sin which seeks to master us and be healed from the wounds and bruises we receive in the course of our battle with sin and what the Church calls 'concupiscence'.  

We can console ourselves with this reflection by the early church father St Irenaeus: “The Word of God, Jesus Christ, on account of his great love for humankind, became what we are in order to make us what he is himself.”  He who was without sin took away our sin that we who are sinful could know the freedom and joy of being children of God, heirs of Christ.  

May Christ come to our house and enter in and by his command cure the fever of our sins.  Each one of us is sick with a fever.  Whenever I give way to anger, I have a fever There are as many fevers as there are faults and vices. Let us beg the apostles to intercede for us with Jesus, that he may come to us and touch our hand. If he does so, at once our fever is gone. (St Jerome)

Job 7:1-7 • Psalm 146(147):1–6 • 1 Corinthians 9:16–19, 22–23 • Mark 1:29–39

After glimpsing Jesus’s glory in his Transfiguration, the disciples had to come down from the mountain. They were truly brought back to earth by the failure of others to exorcise a demon. Though they had seen the glory of God, they still had to operate, as we all do, in a world where Satan has power because of human sin. Our encounters with God in prayer can give us the faith to be able to combat evil in our daily lives.

Jesus rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith. Unlike them, the father of the possessed boy was a model of faith: he knelt before Jesus and addressed him as Lord. He knew who Jesus was and that he had the power to set his son free. The disciples had some faith, but it was weak and needed strengthening. Jesus stressed the power of faith in a vivid way in his statement that even faith the size of a mustard seed could move a mountain. In the world’s perspective faith is something insignificant and powerless; yet it can achieve amazing results. If we only believe, God can do great things through us, and bring about what we think impossible.

Most of us would say we have faith and believe in God, but our challenge is to apply this faith in our daily lives. It is in times of trial and suffering that we are called to live by faith, and it is then that our faith can grow most. We need to exercise our faith, and work to make it grow — otherwise it may wither away and fail to reach its potential. We can nourish our faith by regular prayer, Scripture reading and celebrating the Eucharist. In these ways we allow God to speak to us and strengthen us with his grace.

We should not be content with a wavering faith. If we expect great things from God, he can do great things for us. Jesus’s saying about the grain of faith should not depress us and make us think ourselves inadequate, but inspire us with a vision of the wonderful work God can do if we truly have a firm faith in him and try to live it out every day.

Lord Jesus, I believe in you, but my faith is often weak. Strengthen my faith so that I may allow you to work through me in ways more wonderful than I can imagine.

“. . .if the Catholicism that I was raised in had a fault, and it did, it was precisely that it did not allow for mistkes. If you made a mistake, you lived with it and, like the rich young man, were doomed to be sad, at least for the rest of your life. A serious mistake was a permanent stigmatization. We need a theolgy of brokenness. We need a theology which teaches us that even though we can’t unscramble an egg, God’s grace lets us live happily and with renewed innocence beyond any egg we may have scrambled. Every time we close a door, He opens another one for us . . .

"We need a theology that teaches us that God does not just give us one chance, but that every time we close a door, God opens another one for us. We need a theology that challenges us not to make mistakes, that takes sin seriously, but which tells us that when we do sin, when we do make mistakes, we are given the chance to take our place among the broken, among those whose lives are not perfect, the loved sinners, those for whom Christ came. We need a theology which tells us that a second, third, fourth, and fifth chance are just as valid as the first one. We need a theology that tells us that mistakes are not forever, that they are not even for a lifetime, that time and grace wash clean, that nothing is irrevocable. Finally, we need a theology which teaches us that God loves us as sinners and that the task of Christianity is not to teach us how to live, but to teach us how to live again, and again, and again."

Chris

from Ron Rolheiser