Year I

13th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday

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In today’s Gospel we’re reminded that sometimes we get stuck in life, or see our friends stuck, and no one can go it alone. How many times have we helped our friends or been helped by them in one of those moments? In today’s Gospel the paralytic is stuck both physically and spiritually. Sin drains us and paralyzes us to the point that we can’t get out of it alone. One of the saddest things of being a sinner is that sense of being alone and helpless. As believers, following Christ’s example, we try to help everyone who is stuck in life, especially our friends, but also by being a friend to the friendless when they really need someone. Sin also isolates, and sometimes the sinners themselves try to isolate themselves from others, but they can only get so far before they get stuck.

Jesus teaches us today to bring them to him, because he’s the only friend who can help us definitively get unstuck. The scribes and the crowds couldn’t believe that a man could be an instrument of forgiveness, since God alone forgives sins. They didn’t know yet that Jesus was God, but he himself in referring to himself as the Son of Man alludes to what we experience today in priests and bishops as ministers of the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick: God has given them the authority to spiritually heal on his behalf and as his istruments. Through these sacred ministers the sick and sinners are brought to Jesus to receive healing, spiritual, physical, or both, and the grace to face their trials in faith and trust.

If you’re struggling with illness, spiritual or physical, seek out Our Lord in the sacraments and don’t be afraid to ask your friends for help. If you’re blessed with good spiritual health, ask Our Lord to be that friend with the tact, prudence, and wisdom to bring those paralytics in you life to him.

Readings: Genesis 22:1b–19; Psalm 115:1–6, 8–9; Matthew 9:1–8.

13th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday

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In today’s Gospel we see that debasement engenders debasement, that fear engenders fear, and that both are an obstacle in the spiritual life. The demons, fallen angels, already condemned for making a radical choice against God, are “slumming”: amusing themselves by tormenting two poor souls–the men they are possessing–and attacking anyone who draws near. When Our Lord approaches them they know they’re busted, but they don’t care–they’re already convicted. Until the Last Judgement at the end of history they’ll try to get as many kicks as they can without getting caught. When Our Lord permits them to go into the herd of swine–angels lowered to enjoying being pigs–they take one last “joy ride” before being driven off. We have to be on guard as well against “slumming” in the spiritual life, because it will gradually make us indifferent to God’s goodness and mercy and set us on a downward spiral.

The swineherds pass from one fear to another: from keeping their distance from two crazy demoniacs to seeing a Jewish man (if they were Jewish, they wouldn’t be tending pigs, since they’re unclean animals) casting out demons into their swine and seeing their whole flocked wiped out. When they return to town they can only give witness to terror, so it’s no surprise that the locals are also gripped by terror and beg its source–Jesus–to leave. The grace of God has passed them by.

Let’s ask Our Lord today to help us identify any downward spirals we’re on in the spiritual life. For us, it’s not too late to overcome debasement and fear.

Readings: Genesis 21:5, 8–20a; Psalm 34:7–8, 10–13; Matthew 8:28–34.

13th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday

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In today’s Gospel the disciples ask themselves what sort of “man” Jesus is with the power to calm storms. When God chose to become flesh he also chose to be a teacher; if we consider the story of God’s wrath in today’s First Reading it’s no surprise that he wouldn’t immediately reveal himself as God–they’d be more terrified of him than the storm. It was a gradual process. If the disciples at this point had completely understood him to be God, they’d not have been afraid. After the Resurrection there was little room for doubt, and even then they doubted.

We are taught about Our Lord throughout our life of faith, but he is also within us, revealing himself gradually to the degree he thinks we’re ready. We’re often not as ready as he wants us to be, and that rocks our boat. In faith, little by little, we’ll gain a deeper understanding of him if we trust in him.

When our boat is rocking today let’s ask him to help us grow in faith.

Readings: Genesis 19:15–29; Psalm 26:2–3, 9–12; Matthew 8:23–27.

12th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday

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It is no small feat to impress Our Lord, but in today’s Gospel the Centurion, a Roman officer and not a Jew, manages to do it. The Centurion was making an incredible act of faith against all odds. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, members of the chosen people, had been prepared, spoon fed, for centuries to achieve the level of faith that the Centurion is showing in today’s Gospel, and, as Scripture often reminds us, they often lacked faith in the Lord. The Centurion in approaching Jesus even knows that by Mosaic law he is not worthy to have a Jew enter his house, since for a Jew it would mean ritual defilement. He’s not entitled to be a Jew, and so he shouldn’t, in the mentality of the time, be entitled to any benefits of the chosen people. Yet even as a “fan” of the Jews and their religion something moves him in his heart to approach this rabbi who is more than a rabbi and ask that someone dear to him be healed. This episode in Jesus’ earthly life was a prelude to to moment when the Gospel begins to be proclaimed beyond the confines of Judaism.

The Centurion also shows us that when we ask Our Lord for something in prayer we need to acknowledge that he is under no obligation to grant it, but with the confidence that he will. If the Centurion did not have this simplicity and confidence he would have asked Our Lord if he could heal his servant, have him come to his house, pepper him with repeated pleas along the way, and perhaps pace around nervously as Jesus attended to his friend. In another moment Jesus teaches us that Our Father knows what we need before we ask (see Matthew 6:8). It is also the faith of the Centurion that gives him the simplicity and confidence to know that Our Lord doesn’t have to do a lot of things to perform the miracle. Faith helps us to not wring our hands in anxious prayer, but to simply ask for what we need, with humility, and to be grateful for whatever we receive from Our Lord.

Let’s ask Our Lord today to grow in a faith that trusts in him and knows that we only have to ask him for what we need and our prayer will be heard.

Readings: Genesis 18:1–15; Luke 1:46–50, 53–55; 8:5–17.

12th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday

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In today’s Gospel it may seem that a simple, albeit miraculous, healing has taken place, one of many during Our Lord’s earthly ministry, but considering the cultural attitude and Mosaic law at the time regarding lepers we are witnessing a great act of courage and faith on the leper’s part as well as a great act of compassion on Jesus’ part. Leprosy was considered a punishment by God for sin by the Jews of the time (see, for example, the punishment inflicted on Miriam when she grumbled against her brother Moses’ leadership in Numbers 12). Lepers were to avoid appearing in public and to announce they were nearby to warn off those who might come in contact with them. Because of this they were also considered ritually impure: no Jew would want to go near them, much less touch them. It’s not clear whether the “crowds” are witnessing this too, but the leper was breaking the law by approaching a rabbi in this way. Any Jew would have expected Jesus to reject him outright, but Jesus doesn’t hesitate to touch the unclean and impure leper and may him clean and pure again.

How embarrassing, even humiliating, it can feel when we go to Confession, and that just involves getting in line with maybe a few people who are more or less strangers and then, in the silence of the confessional, coming clean about our sins knowing the priest will keep it completely confidential (even to the point of martyrdom). Leprosy may not have been sin, but it continues to symbolize it even today because of its appearance in Sacred Scripture. Sin makes our lives decay and rot spiritually: if it could be seen, not only would it horrify us, but it would repulse others as well. Our Lord has the same attitude toward us, sinners, as he did toward that leper: he does not hesitate to draw near us, or let us draw near him, and to reach out and touch us with healing and forgiveness.

Let’s examine the spiritual leprosy afflicting our lives–sin–and muster the faith and courage to approach Our Lord in the sacrament of Confession and receive healing and forgiveness.

Readings: Genesis 17:1, 9–10, 15–22; Psalm 128:1–5; Matthew 8:1–4.