Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/090912.cfm

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.



When you read the early documents about the saints Francis, Clare and Anthony you have be impressed by the stories of their miracles. The Church documented not only the holiness of their lives; she also collected stories about how patron saints intercede for their votaries.


The stories, often very short, are filled with gruesome details of human suffering. Before the advent of modern medicine, people often died young of common diseases. They knew little of antiseptics and antibiotics though they had some knowledge of contagion. The only way to protect a community against plague was quarantine; cities sent out soldiers to deter strangers from visiting while they locked their gates against disease. They could not suspect that rats, as common as birds, might carry Bubonic Plague; or than an honored guest might have small pox. Entire villages of native Americans died of that disease and North America was decimated in the closing days of the 18th century. Even in the 20th century we saw more people die during the First World War of the flu than in war.

But human beings, unlike the animals that have survived in our forests and parks, are not subject to Darwin's maxim, the survival of the fittest. Rather, our nature teaches us to care for each other. If a third of Europe died in the Black Death, that was due in part to the men and women who would not abandon their loved ones. They too contracted the illness and died. Catholic monasteries of men and women, already quarantined by their life of prayer, were emptied because the monks and nuns went out to care for the sick. 

I suspect the human creature has survived this long because we care for one another. It's in our genes to do so. 

Jesus was familiar with the pathos of our human existence. He had been sent from God to heal us. God sent him to show Perfect Love to us. That love would embrace our bodies as well as our spirits, our hearts and also our minds. 

Nor would God remain aloof from our suffering. He would not condescend to save us; rather he would descend from eternity to suffer and die with us. Every time Jesus heals a man or woman he takes one more step toward Calvary. We can chart the course easily enough as we hear of those who resented and resisted his ministry. The scriptures tell how, witnessing his good deeds, his enemies withdrew to plot his death.

Perhaps his enemies believed as many do today, that sick people bring their sickness upon themselves and they are not everyone's responsibility. Health care should be given only to the healthy, the wealthy and the deserving. Health insurance is not for the sick; it is for investors to skim the profits and line their pockets.


But health insurance is our way of caring for one another. When I buy a policy, I am not planning on getting sick. I still take care of myself -- eat right, sleep right, avoid alcohol and nicotine, exercise several times a week and maintain the practice of prayer -- and I buy insurance as a fallback plan; always hoping, of course, that my donation will assist someone else. I don't want the money back! 

As Americans discuss health care and health insurance during this election year, they should remember the sacrifice Jesus made for the sick. He would avoid neither those who suffered nor the price he would pay for them. 

By his stripes we are healed. Christians should lead the way as as they follow in his footsteps. They should believe that God cannot be outdone in generosity. Sacrifice is not a burden; it is a privilege. As Saint Paul said,

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church.... Colossians 1:24