Healed to Serve

 

Last Wednesday the gospel was about Jesus healing Simon’s mother-in-law who was sick with a fever.  The story goes “He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.”

I have to be completely honest here, this passage always got stuck in my craw. He healed her so she could wait on them. Here get better, it’s time to make us dinner, we’re hungry sort of thing. I regarded it as a bit misogynistic in feel. Or sexist to use more current terminology. Get better, get up and wait on us.

But then I was scrolling through a social media feed and I happened to catch a homily on this passage from Father Arnell during the mass from St John the Evangelist cathedral in downtown Cleveland. His homily blew my mind, it was quite brilliant and opened Pandora's box seriously. I looked at this passage in a way I had never considered before. I looked at healing in a whole new light, with a whole new purpose.

He shared the message the day before about Jesus exercising an unclean spirit from a man, sharing the message that if we want God to reside in us be enthroned inside our body, because our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, or the temple of God then this temple must first be cleansed. Whatever is residing in our body that is unclean must be driven out, and we can do that now through the sacrament of reconciliation.

What should reside in our hearts is not love of money, or hatred, or jealousy, but the love of God. Not these things that are not pure, not of God.

So the first action of Jesus is often to drive away evil, unclean spirits so that God can fully reside in us.

So in the story of Jesus healing Simons mother-in-law he asks us to notice what she offered in return as a response for her gratefulness. This gratefulness for being healed, cleansed. She began to serve. Here’s the big aha moment.

From healing to service. Healing to service.

It’s not just about us and God. Our desire to be holy should not be self-serving. Once we are healed inwardly our mission should then be turned outward, to love and serve others in  heartfelt gratitude. Wanting to share that gift with the world, how could we keep it to ourselves?

But let’s go back to this healing. For a moment.  How can we serve in the true manner God calls us to serve if we are unclean, or have unclean hearts, parts of our hearts that are hardened. This is the work, the daily work of our hearts. To be constantly searching our hearts, giving over to Jesus to heal those rough patches, those parts we want to hold onto maybe for prides sake. Maybe we feel justified to hold onto anger, or resentment or envy, jealousy. But the point of healing is just that, a cleansing of all that is not holy, not serving God.

Now I didn’t say it was easy, but it is necessary.. which is why Jesus left us the Holy Spirit. He know us, he knows our humanness and he knows our  brokenness and inclination toward sin.  We need to call on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to have any chance at holiness.

 

 

Hope

 From very very early on this thing called love becomes a curiosity, perhaps even a pursuit. We grapple with this concept from a very early age and often times that struggle continues for our entire lives.  To see this image of my grandson reading a book about love gives me both hope and trepidation.  Joy and sorrow.  Understanding his journey to knowing love may not be a smooth one. But what is the point of our role in this life but to try and make that passage kind, safe and welcoming? To take the lessons of our own and share this wisdom to the next heirs of the kingdom. I have heard said our purpose in this life is to love, be loved and remove all barriers to its manifesting in our hearts. How I wish I could swoop in and make straight the way for this wee one. To take all the pain and hurt away before it has a chance to harden any of the edges of this beautiful innocent heart. But love is best learned in the hallows of ones own. The breaking and mending,  the bursting and craving. The exercise of the very muscle that makes it stronger with time. My hope is to root in his very being the magnanimous love that God holds for him. The unconditional space our creator holds for each one of us. How I wish I knew that love at his age. So I will share this love with him, as I share with so many. This promise of God who has loved from the beginning of time to hold a place for us in His kingdom. Brothers and sisters, sons and daughters adopted into His family.  A pure sacred love without end.

The Love of the Father

 

The outdoor grotto at St. Cosmas and Damian
Twinsburg, Ohio

At adoration, this morning I was kneeling in front of the blessed sacrament hands together in prayer and I visualized Jesus looking down at me like a child, the child I once was. The loving glance of a father looking on his child. This beautiful visual reminded me that I am a child of God, forever His child.

Just as a parent will always look upon their son or daughter as a child, that child they once were no matter how old they get. God looks upon us that way. As His precious children.

I prayed to always be able to feel that love and to remind myself we are all children of God. If we want to be models of his love we need to remind ourselves everyone we meet is that child of God, that precious one he looks on with love, forgiveness, mercy, and hope.

I prayed for all those that did not know that love from earthly parents, probably because they did not know that love as a child either. I prayed for the mercy on all generations that did not always love as they should, with the love of our heavenly father. I prayed for God to break into their hearts and reveal that love, that unconditional love he has for each one of us. I prayed for all parents, that they would have the courage and strength to heal their own wounds of childhood, so they would be set free to love like Jesus. For this is the only way to love, as he modeled for us here while he dwelt among us. The word made flesh, the love incarnate, all-consuming ever enduring perfect love of the Father.