Thoughts on healings

 

Jesus Healing

(Mark 5, 21-24, 33b-43)

 

In Mark's gospel this Sunday we have two more examples of Jesus healings. One is of an unknown woman who has suffered for many years from a flow of blood. The other is of a daughter of a local synagogue official. In both instances, as with almost all of Jesus healings, we know little or nothing of the people who are cured.  It also seems that Jesus himself was not acquainted with them.

 

 What all the cured have in common is their belief in Jesus, or on occasion the belief of their friends or relatives who have brought them to him, that Jesus can help them. 

 

From the very beginning of Jesus public life crowds of people flock to see him, to touch him, to do anything they can to get his attention. Jesus obliges them as well as he is physically able. It also seems that he knew very few of them. Exceptions that we know of are Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and the tax collector, Zacchaeus.

 

It's important for us to recall what a diverse and motley group were the individuals helped and touch by Jesus; e.g. there is the Samaritan woman who had had five husbands, and as mentioned the tax collector Zacchaeus, the prostitute who washes Jesus feet with her tears at the house of Simon the pharisee, the son of the widow of Naim, the 10 lepers, the crippled man at the pool of Siloam, and many, many others. The common denominator for all of them is that they or someone else close to them had faith and belief in Jesus.

 

At times there can be the temptation to think or wonder why would Jesus be interested in me or care for me?  Well the answer is tied up in the incredible mystery of God's love. Moreover, the scores of people that Jesus cared for, cured, and helped during his public life can say to us, “Well he was interested in me, and I too was not sure why.

 

Jim Blumeyer, S.J

Thoughts on the elderly

 

Acknowledging Our Own Mortality

To care for the elderly means then that we allow the elderly to make us poor by inviting us to give up the illusion that we created our own life and that nothing or nobody can take it away from us. This poverty, which is an inner detachment, can make us free to receive the old stranger into our lives and make that person into a most intimate friend.  When care has made us poor by detaching us from the illusion of immortality, we can really become present to the elderly. We can then listen to what they say without worrying about how we can answer. We can pay attention to what they have to offer without being concerned about what we can give. We can see what they are in themselves without wondering what we can be for them. When we have emptied ourselves of false occupations and preoccupations, we can offer free space to old strangers, where not only bread and wine but also the story of life can be shared. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on friends

 

The Friend Who Cares

When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing, and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on faith

 

Matthew 6:24–34

Friends, our Gospel today calls us to entrust our lives completely to God. How often the Bible compels us to meditate on the meaning of faith! We might say that the Scriptures rest upon faith, and that they remain inspired at every turn by the spirit of faith. Paul Tillich said that “faith” is the most misunderstood word in the religious vocabulary, and I’ve always felt that he’s right about that. What is faith? Faith is an attitude of trust in the presence of God. Faith is openness to what God will reveal, do, and invite. It should be obvious that in dealing with the infinite, all-powerful God, we are never in control.    This is precisely what we see in the lives of the saints: in Mother Teresa moving into the worst slum in the world in an attitude of trust; in Francis of Assisi just abandoning everything and living for God; in Antony leaving everything behind and going into the desert; in Maximilian Kolbe saying, “I’m a Catholic priest; take me in his place.”  Do not worry, and depend on God for everything. Have faith! Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on the identity of Jesus

 

Calming of the Sea

 

In the calming of the sea episode presented by Mark in this Sundays gospel we have revealed as it were another piece of the puzzle of “Who is Jesus.” The disciples have come to know this former woodworker from Nazareth as a very wise, insightful, captivating and magnetic speaker. Often, he displays unusual and wonderful powers:  He cures the sick, drives out demonic spirits and at times it seems he can forgive sin.

In the calming the storm his disciples are amazed in seeing that he also has power over forces of nature. How could the disciples not have wondered now, as they have at many other times, who is this person, who is he. This question will perplex them throughout his life. It will only be after his death and resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit that the answer to the question ‘who is he’ will gradually begin to unfold.

Moreover, the disciples were not alone in their wondering. The early Church will debate this this question of Jesus’ identity for almost four centuries before officially pronouncing as an article of faith that Jesus is the Son of God, both fully human and fully divine.

Finally, after the sea is at rest, it is noteworthy what concerns Jesus about his disciples reaction: “Do you not yet have faith?”  For Jesus having faith in him is the most critical issue. We see this throughout his public life and again in the apparitions to his followers in his risen life.

We might well remember the prayer of the father who pleaded with Jesus to heal his son.  Jesus told him that all things are possible for those who believe. To which the father responded: “I do believe, help my unbelief.” (Mark 9, 23-25)

May we too pray for such a faith and belief in our lives.



Jim Blumeyer, S.J.

Thoughts on compassion

 

Free to be Compassionate

If you would ask the Desert Fathers why solitude gives birth to compassion, they would say, “Because it makes us die to our neighbor.” At first this answer seems quite disturbing to a modern mind. But when we give it a closer look we can see that in order to be of service to others we have to die to them; that is, we have to give up measuring our meaning and value with the yardstick of others. To die to our neighbors means to stop judging them, to stop evaluating them, and thus to become free to be compassionate. Compassion can never coexist with judgment because judgment creates the distance, the distinction, that prevents us from really being with the other. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on the Holy Spirit

 The Holy Spirit Blows Where It Wills

 

Many a retreat director can relate to Jesus’ description of the grain of wheat and how it sprouts and grows, though the farmer knows not how.  Yet all by itself it sprouts and grows and produces the blade, then the ear and then the full grain in the ear. (Mark 4, 28- 29).

 

It sometimes happens after a retreat or after giving a series of talks a person will come up to you and say something like, ‘you know when you said such and such in your presentation, it was exactly what I needed to hear,’ or perhaps ‘I cannot tell you how deeply it affected me and my relationship with our Lord.’

 

Of course, you thank the individual for saying this and let them know you're very happy for them.  But then often the wisest thing you can do is to bite your tongue and say nothing else. Why?  What’s the problem? You realize that you did not say what they thought you did. In fact, sometimes what you said was even contrary to what they heard.

Many retreat directors have told me that they too have had similar experiences. It is for this reason that a director will often tell their audience that the real director of the retreat is the Holy Spirit.  Moreover, the work of the Spirit isn't something we can completely understand. We know that what the Spirit does works, and why, but the intricacies are beyond our comprehension.

Jim Blumeyer, S.J.

Thoughts on family

 

Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Luke 2:41–51

Friends, today’s Gospel tells the familiar story of Mary and Joseph finding twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple. When they find him, they upbraid him with understandable exasperation: “Son, why have you done this to us?” But Jesus responds, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”   The story conveys a truth that runs sharply counter to our sensibilities: even the most powerful familial emotions must, in the end, give way to mission. Though she felt an enormous pull in the opposite direction, Mary let her son go, allowing him to find his vocation in the temple. Legitimate sentiment devolves into sentimentality precisely when it comes to supersede the call of God.    On a biblical reading, the family is, above all, the forum in which both parents and children are able to discern their missions. It is perfectly good, of course, if deep bonds and rich emotions are cultivated within the family, but those relationships and passions must cede to something that is more fundamental, more enduring, more spiritually focused.    The paradox is this: precisely in the measure that everyone in the family focuses on God’s call for one another, the family becomes more loving and peaceful. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on joy

 

Joy

Joy is essential to the spiritual life. Whatever we may think of or say about God, when we are not joyful, our thoughts and words cannot bear fruit. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing—sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death—can take that love away.  Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us. . . . Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us. Henri Nouwen