CHRIST THE HEALER

 A REFLECTION FOR THE 13TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The cleansing of the ten lepers in today’s Gospel is typical of many other such stories about our Lord’s brief life on earth.  After all, what was that life all about?  What was its purpose?  Ultimately, of course, its one great objective was to redeem mankind, “to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.”  But for man to accept him as the Redeemer, he had to prepare for his Crucifixion and Resurrection.  He had to build up a reputation.

Let’s contrast his motivation for wanting to become famous with that of modern-day celebrities.  They seek fame for its own sake.  They want to be hailed in the street, adored by their fans, popular and loved by the masses.  If this is what drives them to fame, then it is based on a false, self-centered motivation that is not pleasing to God.  In the case of the Son of God, whose only purpose in every single thing he ever did was to please his Father in heaven, his desire to make himself known to the people was based also on this higher purpose to make his Redemption more effective and available to the maximum number of people.  In other words, to save as many souls as he could.

He accomplished this purpose by several means.  First of all by teaching.  His words were so profound, so inspiring, that they attracted multitudes to hear them.  Men and women would follow him even into the mountains and wilderness to hear his sermons, all eager to hear the wisdom and insight Jesus gave them in their dull and often dangerous lives.  But words were not enough.  Our Lord needed to reinforce those words with startling acts that would set him apart from all other men.  He performed miracles.

What kind of miracles should our Lord perform for the admiring crowds?  Should he fly through the air, should he move mountains?  He certainly could have done such things, but what would it prove?  It would certainly demonstrate divine power, but the people would learn nothing else other than this one fact, they would not be inspired to a greater love of God and neighbor.  When necessary, our Lord performed amazing miracles like this, but it was always for a special purpose, such as the changing of water into wine at the behest of his Mother, or walking on the surface of the Sea of Galilee to reach the apostles in the boat.  But the miracles he performed the most were miracles of healing.

By healing sick people from their infirmities, our Lord was able to prove his divinity in a very special way.  He used these miracles first and foremost to demonstrate that he could call upon his divine powers not only to change the natural state of a person, but how he had the power equally to change the person’s supernatural state.  He could make the deaf to hear, the blind to see and the lame to walk, he could cleanse a man from leprosy, even recreating limbs that had fallen off.  Amazing stuff, no doubt.  But what he truly wanted to show them was that he could forgive sins.  He wanted them to know that not only their physical bodies were subject to his divine will, but that he could just as easily heal their souls from the terrible sins they had committed.  He wanted them to know that he was truly merciful, not just for this life but more importantly for the life to come.

The healing of the sick had another effect in that it showed that the divine power was to be used for mercy and not for destruction.  The God of the Old Testament had often shown his wrath for the people of Israel when they crossed him.  Many are the examples when multiple thousands of Jews were destroyed by the will of God after having sinned.  God wanted to show that the New and Everlasting Covenant would be one of mercy, and that with the coming of the Saviour, mankind now had the benefit of his graces and compassion, the forgiveness of their sins if only they would be sorry for them.  These are our own expectations today.  Let not such expectations become presumption however.  Destruction always awaits those who smugly go on sinning.  Pride goeth before a fall.  Let us always remember to call out, like the lepers, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”