The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate our experiences of restoration and healing in the light of our relationship with the Spirit.
Life and healing
The reading from the First Letter of John reveals the testimony concerning the Son of God.
* [5:6–12] Water and blood (1 Jn 5:6) refers to Christ’s baptism (Mt 3:16–17) and to the shedding of his blood on the cross (Jn 19:34). The Spirit was present at the baptism (Mt 3:16; Mk 1:10; Lk 3:22; Jn 1:32, 34). The testimony to Christ as the Son of God is confirmed by divine witness (1 Jn 5:7–9), greater by far than the two legally required human witnesses (Dt 17:6). To deny this is to deny God’s truth; cf. Jn 8:17–18. The gist of the divine witness or testimony is that eternal life (1 Jn 5:11–12) is given in Christ and nowhere else. To possess the Son is not acceptance of a doctrine but of a person who lives now and provides life.1
Psalm 147 is praise for God’s care for Jerusalem.
* [Psalm 147] The hymn is divided into three sections by the calls to praise in Ps 147:1, 7, 12. The first section praises the powerful creator who restores exiled Judah (Ps 147:1–6); the second section, the creator who provides food to animals and human beings; the third and climactic section exhorts the holy city to recognize it has been re-created and made the place of disclosure for God’s word, a word as life-giving as water.2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus cleanses a Leper.
[5:14] Show yourself to the priest…what Moses prescribed: this is a reference to Lv 14:2–9 that gives detailed instructions for the purification of one who had been a victim of leprosy and thereby excluded from contact with others (see Lv 13:45–46, 49; Nm 5:2–3). That will be proof for them: see note on Mt 8:4.3
Cindy Costanzo shares that the gift of faith and awareness allows her to recognize God’s daily presence in her life.
These gifts open my eyes and heart to recognize how God has placed others in my path to love, nourish and support me throughout my life. I am grateful. In a cyclical fashion these gifts strengthen my belief in God. I believe God is with me, God cares for me, God loves me, and God provides for me. How do I know? I see God in my family, friends, and colleagues. I see God in the gift of community provided within my religious and spiritual organizations, at work, on vacation, during leisure time. I see God everywhere in nature. I see God in all the beautiful creatures created for this world. 4
Don Schwager quotes “Jesus' healing demonstrates the power of the kingdom of heaven,” by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.
"The authority of power in the Lord is here compared with the steadfastness of faith manifest in the leper (Luke 5:12-13). He fell on his face because it is a mark of humility and modesty that each feel shame for the sins of his life, but shyness did not restrict his confession. He showed the wound, he begged for the remedy, and the very confession is full of piety and faith. 'If you will,' it says, 'you can make me clean'" He conceded the power to the Lord's will. But he doubted concerning the Lord's will, not as if unbelieving in piety, but as if aware of his own impurity, he did not presume. The Lord replies to him with a certain holiness. 'I will: be clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.' For there is nothing between God's command and his work, because the work is in the command. Thus he spoke, and they came into being (Psalm 33:9). You see that it cannot be doubted that the will of God is power. If, therefore, his will is power, those who affirm that the Trinity is of One will affirm that it is of one power. Thus the leprosy departed immediately. In order that you may understand the effect of healing, he added truth to the work." (excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 5.2-3)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 John 5:5-13 comments that today’s first reading points to three crucial witnesses: “the Spirit, the water, and the Blood” (1 John 5:8). These witnesses spoke to Jesus’ own followers, and they can speak to us. Jesus began his ministry when he was baptized in the Jordan River. Then came the testimony of blood, in Jesus’ death on the cross. It didn’t make sense. It was only when the Spirit descended on them at Pentecost that the disciples saw that Jesus was “both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36).
Today we still have the testimonies of the water and the blood to tell us about Jesus. But it’s the Spirit who makes our faith come alive. It’s the Spirit who opens our eyes and overcomes our doubts. He’s the One who brings us into God’s presence, fills us with his love, and prompts us to live for Christ. Best of all, this special gift from God will never leave us. “Come, Holy Spirit! Fill me and guide me today.”6
Friar Jude Winkler shares the connection of Jesus Spirit and humanity to the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. Internal and external revelation of Jesus' Presence empower us to overcome the world. Friar Jude notes the frequent accounts of Jesus' prayer in the Gospel of Luke.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares the comments of Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis about Jesus using the Parable of the Good Samaritan to answer his companion’s question about the definition of neighbor. Rabbi Jesus was getting to what he considered to be the essential laws—love God with all you have and love your neighbor as yourself. He tells the story to make the point: What you think is outside, God has put inside. The Samaritan is more inside the boundaries of what is good/pure/loving than the passersby (religious leaders no less!) who did not stop to help the bleeding, beaten man on the street. In telling this story about a hated, mixed-race Samaritan doing a good deed, Jesus is disrupting the idea of borders and boundaries.
In any relationship, fierce love causes us to cross boundaries and borders to discover one another, to support one another, to heal one another. When we do this, when we go crazy with affection, and offer wild kindness to our neighbor across the street or across the globe, we make a new kind of space between us. We make space for discovery and curiosity, for learning and growing. We make space for sharing stories and being changed by what we share. This is the space of the border, of mestizaje [mixed race], of both/and. . . . We can learn to see the world not only through our own stories, through our own eyes, but also through the stories and worldview of the so-called other. . . . We simply must open our eyes, look across the room, the street, the division, the border—and reach out to that neighbor, offering our hand, our compassion, and our heart.7
The internal revelation we have of Jesus through the Holy Spirit is complemented by our experiences in the Sacraments and the people we encounter on our journey.
References
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