February 8, 2009 Cycle B (Second week DMF Pledge Drive)
Job 7:1-4.6-7 1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23 Mark 1:29-39
Today’s scriptures are about secrets. Or, stated differently, the readings are about a great truth which once was a secret, but is no more. The great truth now revealed is this: “Our God is a God of compassion. A God who wants to be with us, and to suffer with us.”
In the Gospel today we hear the mysterious phrase; “Jesus drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew Him.” They knew He was the Promised Messiah, God’s only Son. The point is that Jesus didn’t want that to get around just yet. He didn’t want to be a revealed celebrity because although He may call followers, He does not court fans. Fans scream until the next idol comes along. Followers take up the Cross. St. Mark, the evangelist, is asking, “What are we: genuine followers, or mere fans?”
Then there is the telling sentence that says, “Rising very early before dawn, He left and went off to a deserted place where He prayed.” Jesus needed time-out. He needed to resist the fans and the growing fame to follow something deeper. Thus we are reminded that it takes some quiet time, some prayer time, to find our true home, to grasp one’s identity and mission in life.
But also laced throughout this brief road schedule of Jesus’ activities is the motif of healing. That brings me to the careful and significant difference between curing and healing. While cures aim at returning our bodies to what they were in the past, healing uses what is present to move us more deeply into “soul awareness.” In other words, healing, which refers to the soul, can happen without cure, which refers to the body. In fact, it is often in the uncured sickness that the healing begins.
A man by the name of Michael Lerner, who works with people diagnosed with cancer, offered this description of what he would do if faced with a cancer diagnosis. “I would pay a great deal of attention to the inner healing process that I hoped the cancer diagnosis would trigger in me. I would give careful thought to the meaning of my life, what I had to let go of and what I wanted to keep.”
John Updike, in his poem “Fever” tells about one facet of the inner healing that may accompany sickness. “I have brought back a good message from the land of 102 degrees: God exists.”
Lying meditatively on his sick bed a long time, Updike sites the witness of the bedposts, blankets, and the trees outside the window, and finally observes: “Yes, it is truth long known, that some secrets are hidden from health.”
Updike is correct. Some patients report a greater sense of being alive and in communion with others when they were sick. When they were cured they returned to normal life. A life often characterized by numbness and rote obligation. Cure of the body actually threatened healing of the soul.”
As we read the Gospels over and over, we recognize that Jesus cured some, not all. Jesus was more interested in healing, healing the soul and driving out many demons, such as the thinking that you are the center of the universe, collecting things and discarding people. Selecting pornography and passing up truth. Choosing vice and ignoring virtue. A constricted heart over a generous one. Sometimes Gospel wisdom tells us that an uncured body brings about a healed soul.
We come today to continue our pledge drive for the Diocesan Ministry Fund as well. We gather today to be strengthened, to be healed of all our infirmities and spirit. And as we’ve seen in the posters, and the publicity for DMF, our call is to “Lift up your hearts.” This response, “We have lifted them up to the Lord” is the one we make after we bring forth the offertory gifts and pray the Great Eucharistic Prayer. We find the bread and the wine is transformed into the real presence of Jesus Christ in the midst of our community. The Eucharist is the fountain for the support, education, preparation, service, and worship that constitutes our Diocesan Ministry. We receive the strength every week from the Eucharist to carry on the mission individually and collectively as God’s people.
If you read the literature that the Diocese sent out and is available in the brochure today, you’ll be able to consider the many areas of work that the Diocesan Church is involved in. Consider how you will share your gift through the Diocesan Ministry Fund. God calls each of us to respond to that call to “Lift up your hearts.” A pledge of $300.00 over the next 10 months will enable us to reach our parish obligation of $95,000.00.
Keeping then with the reflection of St. Mark’s Gospel today, I conclude with that old prayer that really contains the Gospel wisdom I spoke of.
“I asked God for strength that I might achieve;
but I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do great things;
but I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy;
but I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of people;
but I was given weakness that I might feel the need for God.
I asked for all things so that I might enjoy life;
but I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am among all people truly blessed.” Amen. Amen. Msgr. Tom, Pastor Christ the King