Healing Immaturity and Division

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate our level of maturity in our relationship with Christ and others by examining our openness to “go” and serve others.

Maturity and Service

The reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians addresses divisions in the Corinthian Church.

* [3:1] Spiritual people…fleshly people: Paul employs two clusters of concepts and terms to distinguish what later theology will call the “natural” and the “supernatural.” (1) The natural person (1 Cor 2:14) is one whose existence, perceptions, and behavior are determined by purely natural principles, the psychē (1 Cor 2:14) and the sarx (flesh, a biblical term that connotes creatureliness, 1 Cor 3:1, 3). Such persons are only infants (1 Cor 3:1); they remain on a purely human level (anthrōpoi, 1 Cor 3:4). (2) On the other hand, they are called to be animated by a higher principle, the pneuma, God’s spirit. They are to become spiritual (pneumatikoi, 1 Cor 3:1) and mature (1 Cor 2:6) in their perceptions and behavior (cf. Gal 5:16–26). The culmination of existence in the Spirit is described in 1 Cor 15:44–49. (1 Corinthians, CHAPTER 3, n.d.)

Psalm 33 praises the Greatness and Goodness of God.

* [Psalm 33] A hymn in which the just are invited (Ps 33:1–3) to praise God, who by a mere word (Ps 33:4–5) created the three-tiered universe of the heavens, the cosmic waters, and the earth (Ps 33:6–9). Human words, in contrast, effect nothing (Ps 33:10–11). The greatness of human beings consists in God’s choosing them as a special people and their faithful response (Ps 33:12–22). (Psalms, PSALM 33, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus heals at Simon’s House and preaches in the Synagogues.

* [4:31–44] The next several incidents in Jesus’ ministry take place in Capernaum and are based on Luke’s source, Mk 1:21–39. To the previous portrait of Jesus as prophet (Lk 4:16–30) they now add a presentation of him as teacher (Lk 4:31–32), exorcist (Lk 4:32–37, 41), healer (Lk 4:38–40), and proclaimer of God’s kingdom (Lk 4:43). (Luke, CHAPTER 4, n.d.)

Andy Alexander, S.J comments that it is consoling to draw several graces from this gospel. We can all turn to Jesus for healing. Perhaps every physical illness can't be physically healed. It is the deep healing that Jesus offers that is most important. He can rebuke the "illnesses" that trouble us most. He can cause our doubts and fears, our angers and judgments, our habits and patterns, our lack of love and compassion - whatever is keeping us from being fully well and alive, in him - to leave us.

It is also consoling to think about how each of us can "intercede" with Jesus for others who are suffering. Suffering can cause lack of hope and even threaten one's faith. We can be the disciple who turns to Jesus on behalf of someone who is struggling. "Dear Jesus, please give Ann freedom and peace." "Dear Jesus, please free Matt from what is troubling him." "Dear Jesus, please come to show your love and accompaniment to Pat."

Let's let these readings comfort us all with a renewed sense of Jesus' love for us. He's the one we can turn to in our need and he alone can offer us a peace that no one else can give. And, let us let go of our divisions and turn to Jesus to heal us as a community, filling us with gratitude that will lead us to coming together to serve those in need, in his name. (Alexander, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “Jesus the Chief Physician,” by Jerome (347-420 AD).

"'Now Simon's mother-in-law was kept in her bed sick with a fever.' May Christ come to our house and enter in and by his command cure the fever of our sins. Each one of us is sick with a fever. Whenever I give way to anger, I have a fever. There are as many fevers as there are faults and vices. Let us beg the apostles to intercede for us with Jesus, that he may come to us and touch our hand. If he does so, at once our fever is gone. He is an excellent physician and truly the chief Physician. Moses is a physician. Isaiah is a physician. All the saints are physicians, but he is the chief Physician." (excerpt from HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MARK 75.1) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 4:38-44 comments that one word that characterizes the Christian life is “go.”  This “going” continues even now. Believers serve in soup kitchens and homeless shelters. They provide outreach to prisoners. They offer Bible studies and small groups where they can share their faith and invite other people to encounter the Lord. Some even move across countries and continents to reach people with the gospel.

Jesus asks every Christian to go, to leave what’s comfortable and familiar and share the hope that we’ve found. Some of us can participate in parish ministries and mission efforts, and some can’t. But everyone can still answer the call to go. We go when we intercede for suffering people miles away and donate to organizations that serve them. We go when we call or visit a sick friend and encourage or pray with them. We go when we offer to drive someone to church or to the grocery store. We go whenever we share our faith with someone else. Going and making disciples often requires sacrifice, but the reward is so great. We get to be coworkers with Jesus (1 Corinthians 3:9).

Today, think about how God has gone out of his way to find you and has sent people to care for you. Ask the Spirit to help you find creative ways to go and reach people with his love.

“Jesus, I will go for you. Here I am, Lord. Send me.” (Meditation on Luke 4:38-44, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments on the reaction of Paul to the cliques and immaturity present in the people of Corinth. God asks us to be co-workers and to be involved rather than passively letting God do it. The Gospel reminds us of Luke, the physician, who emphasizes the role of prayer in Jesus' mission of love and healing.

Cynthia Bourgeault chooses a homily of Father Richard Rohr that  considers the parable of the wedding feast and points out how few of us seem even to desire to attend God’s banquet. Do you know how many times in the four Gospels eternal life is described as a banquet, a feast, a party, a wedding, the marriage feast of the Lamb? There are fifteen different, direct allusions to eternal life being a great, big party. Do you know how many parables there are about eternal life being a courtroom or a judgment scene? One. Matthew 25. And that’s good. We need Matthew 25 because it makes it very clear that the ultimate issue is about how we care for the poor and marginalized.

Jesus goes out of his way to mention the good and the bad alike. We don’t like that either. We only want the good people to be there at the banquet, assuming, of course, that we’re the good people. Did you ever see the irony of that? Don’t you realize that every religion thinks that they are the ones that God likes? And we end up gathering at the party with that smug certitude; but when we do, it resembles something that very often isn’t much like a party. I don’t want to offend anybody, but sometimes only half of us even sing when we’re at church; half of us don’t even pick up the hymnals. I’m not trying to be cruel, but let’s just be honest and admit that many of us aren’t excited to be at church. For many of us, the Body of Christ is not a party.

Instead, we often believe that heaven is a giant courtroom scene. The good people win, the bad people lose, and almost everybody is bad except our group. That won’t work! It gives no joy and no hope to the world. It tells people they’re on the right side when sometimes they’re very unloving people who don’t care about the poor or the marginalized at all. And the statistics prove that Christians are no better than anybody else, in fact, very often—I’m sorry to say it—we’re worse.

Do we want to be a part of the wedding feast to which all are invited? The only people who don’t get in on the party are those who don’t want to come—so I guess we have to ask ourselves, “Do we want to come?” (Bourgeault, n.d.)

We are called as workers in the vineyard, who, by our service, make Jesus Love and compassion visible to all in need of healing.

References

Alexander, A. (n.d.). Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries. OnlineMinistries. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/083122.html 

Bourgeault, C. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/heaven-is-a-great-party-2022-08-31/ 

Luke, CHAPTER 4. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/4?38 

Meditation on Luke 4:38-44. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/08/31/478612/ 

1 Corinthians, CHAPTER 3. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/3?1 

Psalms, PSALM 33. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/33?12 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture ... Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2022&date=aug31 

Spiritual Knowledge

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today resonate with our experience of connection with God through spiritual awareness.

Aware of the Spirit

 

The reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians proclaims the True Wisdom revealed by the Spirit.

* [2:15] The spiritual person…is not subject to judgment: since spiritual persons have been given knowledge of what pertains to God (1 Cor 2:11–12), they share in God’s own capacity to judge. One to whom the mind of the Lord (and of Christ) is revealed (1 Cor 2:16) can be said to share in some sense in God’s exemption from counseling and criticism. (1 Corinthians, CHAPTER 2, n.d.)

Psalm 145 praises the Greatness and the Goodness of God.

* [Psalm 145] A hymn in acrostic form; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostic poems usually do not develop ideas but consist rather of loosely connected statements. The singer invites all to praise God (Ps 145:1–3, 21). The “works of God” make God present and invite human praise (Ps 145:4–7); they climax in a confession (Ps 145:8–9). God’s mighty acts show forth divine kingship (Ps 145:10–20), a major theme in the literature of early Judaism and in Christianity. (Psalms, PSALM 145, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus heals the Man with an Unclean Spirit.

* [4:34] What have you to do with us?: see note on Jn 2:4. Have you come to destroy us?: the question reflects the current belief that before the day of the Lord control over humanity would be wrested from the evil spirits, evil destroyed, and God’s authority over humanity reestablished. The synoptic gospel tradition presents Jesus carrying out this task. (Luke, CHAPTER 4, n.d.)

Candice Tucci, O.S.F. comments that we too are born, created to be true to ourselves. Both as individuals and collectively as humanity our call is to live true to the Spirit of God who dwells within us. To live with the mind of Christ having been created in the image of God. God’s work of art! It is here our own authority is grounded.

St. Ignatius of Loyola gives us a way through the discernment of spirits to help us know when we are being faithful to our own truth, and when we stray or need to make choices for life.

From experience he knew that some thoughts left him sad while others made him happy, and little by little he came to perceive the different spirits that were moving him; one coming from the devil, the other coming from God (Autobiography, no. 8). This link below will give more information.

Tending to and living a spiritual life heightens our senses to recognize the demons present within ourselves and around us. We recognize the things that lure us from the goodness and love of God. With grace, and belief in the Spirit of God within, we can cast them out. We can choose life, forgiveness, love, choose God. (Creighton U. Daily Reflection, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “New creation begins on the Sabbath,” by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.

"He describes the works of divine healing begun on the sabbath day, to show from the outset that the new creation began where the old creation ceased. He showed us that the Son of God is not under the law but above the law, and that the law will not be destroyed but fulfilled (Matthew 5:17). For the world was not made through the law but by the Word, as we read: 'By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established' (Psalm 33:6). Thus the law is not destroyed but fulfilled, so that the renewal of humankind, already in error, may occur. The apostle too says, 'Stripping yourselves of the old man, put on the new, who was created according to Christ' (Colossians 3:9-10, Ephesians 4:22,24). He fittingly began on the sabbath, that he may show himself as Creator. He completed the work that he had already begun by weaving together works with works. (excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 4.58) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 4:31-37 comments that the same One who spoke to that crowd can speak through the pages of the Bible because these words are inspired by the Holy Spirit himself. They bear not just information about God; they bear the very breath of God. And that breath can infuse us with the life and wisdom and power of God if we approach these words in prayer and with an open heart.

If you want to experience the power of God’s word, start with today’s Gospel reading. Focus on the possessed man’s words: “I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” (Luke 4:34). Let that statement sink in. All of creation, even the fallen angels, recognize Jesus as the Holy One. You recognize him too, and he’s right here with you. Take a few moments to worship him. Go beyond the words and go to Jesus. Thank and praise him for his majesty, and let yourself be transformed by his grace and love!

“Thank you, Lord, for the gift of your word! Let it reach into the depth of my soul to teach me, inspire me, and guide me in the way of salvation.” (Meditation on Luke 4:31-37, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments that Paul was addressing a community in Corinth that understood spirit in the terms of the ancient gods. Some Corinthians thought they had a monopoly on the Spirit and some rejected Jesus as Incarnate. Friar Jude observes in the Gospel of Luke, the physician, that spiritual creatures have an understanding of Jesus as the Son of God.

Cynthia Bourgeault introduces a 1951 sermon by theologian and mystic Howard Thurman (1900–1981) who reflects on Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep, starting with the sheep’s perspective. Thurman speaks of the pain of being separated from our communities:

Insulation is something that is spiritual; . . . there’s something inside of me that pulls up . . . the drawbridge. . . . Sometimes I do it because I’m afraid; sometimes I do it because I’m clumsy and awkward, and I don’t quite know how to establish a relationship or relationships with my fellows that can float my spirit to them and bring their spirit to me. . . .

Now, Jesus says that God is like the shepherd, seeking always to find those who are out of community with their fellows, and when they have found it, when they have found their community with their fellows, then all the world seems to fit back into place, and life takes on a new meaning. . . .

The lost sheep. The searching shepherd. And the cry of anguish of the sheep was the voice of identification that the shepherd heard. That is how God is, if we let him. (Bourgeault, n.d.)

We, as members of the mystical Body of Christ, are blessed with a connection to God and other people through the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit.

References

Bourgeault, C. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 30, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-sheep-lost-and-found-2022-08-30/ 

Creighton U. Daily Reflection. (n.d.). Online Ministries. Retrieved August 30, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/083022.html 

Luke, CHAPTER 4. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 30, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/4?31 

Meditation on Luke 4:31-37. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved August 30, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/08/30/477959/ 

1 Corinthians, CHAPTER 2. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 30, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/2 

Psalms, PSALM 145. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 30, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/145?8 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). His Word Was with Authority and Power. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 30, 2022, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2022&date=aug30