The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today exhort us to be open to love and compassion as the primary drivers of decisions we make that impact the people and events we encounter on our journey.
Healing our fear
The reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah describes the Glorious New Creation.
* [65:17–18] The new creation (cf. 66:22) is described with apocalyptic exuberance: long life, material prosperity, and so forth. As the former events in 43:18 are to be forgotten, so also the new creation wipes out memory of the first creation.1
Psalm 30 is a thanksgiving for Recovery from grave illness.
* [Psalm 30] An individual thanksgiving in four parts: praise and thanks for deliverance and restoration (Ps 30:2–4); an invitation to others to join in (Ps 30:5–6); a flashback to the time before deliverance (Ps 30:7–11); a return to praise and thanks (Ps 30:12). Two sets of images recur: 1) going down, death, silence; 2) coming up, life, praising. God has delivered the psalmist from one state to the other.2
In the Gospel of John, Jesus returns to Galilee and heals an official’s son.
* [4:43–54] Jesus’ arrival in Cana in Galilee; the second sign. This section introduces another theme, that of the life-giving word of Jesus. It is explicitly linked to the first sign (Jn 2:11). The royal official believes (Jn 4:50). The natural life given his son is a sign of eternal life.3
Jay Carney comments that visions of hope are inspiring, yet they can also seem utopian, far removed from our own world of war, pandemic, and social division. What Jesus shows us in John’s gospel, however, is that the Kingdom of God is not simply a dream deferred.
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to visit with the Brothers of Charity in Gatagara, Rwanda. Since the early 1960s, the Brothers and their lay companions have offered a remarkable array of medical and community services for the blind, the deaf, the disabled, and the mentally ill. On this particular visit, I attended morning Mass at the Gatagara church, which requires congregants to walk down a hill to enter the sanctuary. I will never forget the scene as the sun rose that morning. Scores of children and teenagers, many in wheelchairs, others on crutches, helped each other walk into the church, singing in unison. Like Isaiah, I had witnessed a small foretaste of a new heaven and a new earth. God had come down.4
Don Schwager quotes “Christ our physician,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"God sent the human race a physician, a savior, One Who healed without charging a fee. Christ also came to reward those who would be healed by Him. Christ heals the sick, and He makes a gift to those whom He heals. And the gift that He makes is Himself!" (excerpt from Sermon 102,2)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Isaiah 65:17-21 comments that Scripture verses like these remind us of our heavenly home, where there will be no more suffering or sadness (Isaiah 65:19). They tell of a time when every tear will be wiped away and every relationship will be restored. As Christians, we believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of these words. He has promised to prepare a place for us: a place of complete well-being for every part of his creation (John 14:2-3; Revelation 21:4). He has promised us a place with him, where there is no suffering, only joy and wholeness.
Perhaps you have lost someone you love, and this season of sacrifice is yet another reminder of the difficult path you are on. Or maybe you are facing some other kind of struggle that is challenging you in unforeseen ways. God knows where you are. He’s inviting you to come and tell him about your pain, even if it’s something that happened a long time ago. He is saying, “My beloved child, I am holding you; trust in me. One day, all of this will be made new.” If it feels hard to believe this, that’s okay; just hold on to Jesus’ promise that he is with you. As you are ready, bring your questions and everything else to him. Let him remind you of the joyous day when you will see him face-to-face. “Lord, help me to trust you on this journey to heaven.”6
Friar Jude Winkler discusses the vision of a new heaven and a new earth as the response in the text from Isaiah to the complaining of returnees from exile. The signs in John’s Gospel are intended to avoid extraordinary miracles that may obscure the message of Jesus. Friar Jude reminds us that union with Jesus brings fullness of life today that continues after death.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Nadia Bolz-Weber, a Lutheran pastor, author, and dear friend. She published this sermon during the first COVID shutdown in the United States. She describes how Christians might interpret the oft-given scriptural command to “Be not afraid.”
Well, today I started to think that maybe it’s not safety that keeps us from being afraid. Maybe it’s love. Which means that a Mother Hen of a God doesn’t keep foxes from being dangerous . . . a Mother Hen of a God keeps foxes from being what determines how we experience the unbelievably beautiful gift of being alive. God the Mother Hen gathers all of her downy feathered, vulnerable little ones under God’s protective wings so that we know where we belong, because it is there that we find warmth and shelter. But Faith in God does not bring you safety. The fox still exists. Danger still exists. And by that I mean, danger is not optional, but fear is. Because maybe the opposite of fear isn’t bravery. Maybe the opposite of fear is love. So in the response to our own Herods, in response to the very real dangers of this world we have an invitation as people of faith: which is to respond by loving.7
The fear that threatens our peace in new surroundings, facing new challenges, and living with changes in our life is conquered as we attend to the prompting of the Spirit to seek healing in loving action with others.
References
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