Jesus, The Great Healer and Evangelizer!

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

07 February 2021 

 

First Reading:  JB 7:1-4, 6-7

Responsorial Psalm:  PS 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Second Reading:  1 COR 9:16-19, 22-23

Gospel:  MK 1:2939

 

Reflection

By: Jose Paulo M. Gonzales

 

Three accounts, one divine reality. The Jesus that we see today is He who brings miraculous healing.

Jesus has been called many things: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), but one that greatly tantalizes people unto Him at a pace so instant is His being the "Great Healer." As a child, I remember how my mother would tuck me into bed. On nights she would feel a fever running up my body, as she places her hand on my forehead to see how high the fever likely is, she would remind me, "Jesus is the Greatest Physician."

 

There are only few things that can uplift the human condition so significantly--so instantly than miraculous healing. This is why it is understandable how for some people, as far-off from the faith they may have appeared before, we hear stories of radical conversion. As incredible as the healing is, the amazement towards God, which can bring about the radical conversion, can also be.

Jesus needed only little to make healing happen. In the Gospel we read, it was only the hand of Simon's mother. As He helped her up, the fever left her. In Matthew 9:20-22, twelve years of bleeding made no impediment of God's ability to heal. It was only hem if His garment the woman in distress needed touching--only so slightly--and twelve years of bleeding--now gone! In John 5, there was a man gazing upon the pool of Bethesda. He was regretful upon thinking how for many years, he could never manage to go into the pool for many who were much more able-bodied than he was  would go first. And then came Jesus' healing words: "Get up, pick up your mat, and go."

 

In these instances of healing, it is common to hear Jesus saying something along the lines of: "Go, your faith has healed you;"  but truth be told. Even our ability to believe can falter. Differing experiences every day could bring us to felicitous speaks, but to also disheartening troughs. Would God be any less able to heal us if we fall short on faith? I, for one, believe that God can heal independently of our faith. He precedes us; it is His breath that willed us into existence. His abilities surpass our abilities, and more so, our shortcomings. I believe that God can work well beyond our ability or inability to believe, for past our ability to believe is His innately unconquerable love. So why does God say that it is the woman's faith that healed her? Why do we believe that it is our faith that heals? It may be that while God is ever able to heal us with less regard to where we are in life, strong in faith or not, bearing in mind that it is well in God's ability to implant in us the faith we need, the faith that we muster ourselves can serve as the "door" that signals our assent to the Lord. In other words, our faith can either accept or reject God's healing, as willing as He is--ever!--to administer it.

The reality of faith is beyond me. While I may not fully understand what the relationship is between our faith and God's miraculous healing, it is my hope that God would help us cultivate strong faith, nonetheless. For if God said we can move mountains even with faith the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20), who knows that astounding realities our faith can make happen if God breathes his miracles into it?

After doing great feats of healing, it is admirable how Jesus took to prayer. Such was His relationship with the Father that Jesus culminated His healings with His communication with the Father. Along with Jesus healing many from their predicaments, He delivered the Good News. Jesus met healing and evangelization together--both parts of His ministry--faith and works intertwined! Commendable in healing ability, also in fulfilling responsibility. This is the Jesus we love and serve.

 

Prayer

 

Jesus, help us cultivate strong faith, so we can enable Your healing to happen in us and others. May this healing bring us closer to You. In our testimonies, may the healing experience bring others closer to You.

 

Please help us also make good with our responsibilities as You did. Please help us in our undertakings and may we never fail to fulfill our responsibility to spread Your Good Word.

In Your most Holy Name, Jesus, Amen.