The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the large meaning of restoration of peace and joy in our life through our faith.
Faith and healing
The reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah describes the return of the redeemed to Zion.
* [35:1–10] This chapter contains a number of themes similar to those in Deutero-Isaiah (chaps. 40–55), for example, the blossoming of the wilderness (vv. 1–2; cf. 41:18–19), which is now well-irrigated (v. 7; cf. 43:19–20); sight to the blind (vv. 5–6; cf. 42:7, 16); a highway in the wilderness (v. 8; cf. 41:3); and the return of the redeemed/ransomed to Zion (vv. 9–10; cf. 51:11). Nevertheless, it forms a unit with chap. 34 (see note on 34:1–35:10) and reflects, along with that chapter, themes found in chaps. 1–33.1
Psalm 85 is a prayer for the restoration of God’s favour.
* [Psalm 85] A national lament reminding God of past favors and forgiveness (Ps 85:2–4) and begging for forgiveness and grace now (Ps 85:5–8). A speaker represents the people who wait humbly with open hearts (Ps 85:9–10): God will be active on their behalf (Ps 85:11–13). The situation suggests the conditions of Judea during the early postexilic period, the fifth century B.C.; the thoughts are similar to those of postexilic prophets (Hg 1:5–11; 2:6–9).2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus heals a paralytic.
* [5:20] As for you, your sins are forgiven: literally, “O man, your sins are forgiven you.” The connection between the forgiveness of sins and the cure of the paralytic reflects the belief of first-century Palestine (based on the Old Testament: Ex 20:5; Dt 5:9) that sickness and infirmity are the result of sin, one’s own or that of one’s ancestors (see also Lk 13:2; Jn 5:14; 9:2).3
Maureen McCann Waldron comments that the last part of the miracle seems to be that not only did the man and his friends glorify God, but “astonishment seized them all” and it appears that even the scribes and Pharisees “glorified God and were struck with awe.”
Today we have the chance to be struck with awe by the God who is at our side and saves us at every moment of the day. Today is a chance to be grateful and glorify God. If we allow ourselves to believe that God is really here with us, for us today, then our hearts will be filled with “joy and gladness.”4
Peter Edmonds SJ, a member of the Jesuit community at Stamford Hill, North London, comments that we learn from the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke that as we grow in our knowledge of the goodness and love of God, so will we grow in our faith.
At first sight, Luke adds little to what we have noted in Mark and Matthew. Once more the word faith is used in connection with those who brought the paralytic to Jesus (Luke 5:20) and with the centurion whose servant was healed (7:9). Four times in Luke, in contrast to the two occasions in Mark and Matthew, we find the expression, ‘Your faith has saved you’. Jesus addresses it not only to the woman cured of her haemorrhages (8:48) and to the blind man whom Mark calls Bartimaeus (18:42), but also to the woman ‘in the city who was a sinner’ (7:37, 50) and to the leper who returned to praise God (17:19). Such salvation is a theme in Luke, as John the Baptist proclaimed in his preaching, ‘All flesh shall see the salvation of God’ (3:6). Only in Luke is Jesus called saviour, as the angels announced to the shepherds (2:11).5
Don Schwager quotes “Jesus heals spiritually and physically,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"When the Savior says to him, 'Man, your sins are forgiven you,' he addresses this to humankind in general. For those who believe in him, being healed of the diseases of the soul, will receive forgiveness of the sins which they formerly committed. He may also mean this: 'I must heal your soul before I heal your body. If this is not done, by obtaining strength to walk, you will only sin more. Even though you have not asked for this, I as God see the maladies of the soul which brought on you this disease.'"(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 12)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 5:17-26 notes that when they finally encountered Jesus and his power to heal, they all left with resounding joy in their hearts.
Longing. Faith. Effort. Joy. Doesn’t this make for a promising pattern for us this Advent? Like the men in this story, we all long to see Jesus. We long to experience his presence and receive his healing. Everyone has this longing, even those who can’t quite put words to their desires. That’s because we were made for Christ, and, as St. Augustine of Hippo says, our hearts will be restless until they rest in Jesus.7
Friar Jude Winkler connects the text from Isaiah to the rabbinical tradition of the person of the goel, who takes your part. Today, we might consider forgiveness of sins easier than healing a disability. Friar Jude reminds us that healing calls many to glorify God.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, asks us to consider that instead of believing that Jesus came to fulfill us separately, how about trusting that we are here to fulfill Christ? We take our small but wonderful part in what Thomas Merton calls “The General Dance.” [2] We are a part of this movement of an ever-growing Universal Christ that is coming to be in this “one great act of giving birth” (Romans 8:22). As Sister Ilia Delio says:
We can read the history of our 13.7-billion-year-old universe as the rising up of Divine Love incarnate, which bursts forth in the person of Jesus, who reveals love’s urge toward wholeness through reconciliation, mercy, peace, and forgiveness. Jesus is the love of God incarnate, the wholemaker who shows the way of evolution toward unity in love. In Jesus, God breaks through and points us in a new direction; not one of chance or blindness but one of ever-deepening wholeness in love. In Jesus, God comes to us from the future to be our future. Those who follow Jesus are to become wholemakers, uniting what is scattered, creating a deeper unity in love. Christian life is a commitment to love, to give birth to God in one’s own life and to become midwives of divinity in this evolving cosmos. We are to be wholemakers of love in a world of change. [1]8
Our faith strengthens our resolve to be like Christ and bring healing to broken situations as we witness the re-creation of the universe.
References
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