Mark 1: 29-39
I would like to begin by explaining a phrase used in today’s gospel. First, however, let me set the scene. Our gospel opens where last Sunday’s gospel left off ~ with Jesus leaving the synagogue where he had cast a demon out of a possessed man. Recall how everyone was amazed at his power and authority. His disciples were deeply impressed, too. So much so that when they got to Peter’s house, they asked Jesus to heal Peter’s mother-in-law who was sick in bed with a fever.
In the gospel translation we just listened to, we heard that Jesus “…took her by the hand and helped her up.” A more faithful and literal translation of the original Greek would read, “He took her by the hand and raised her up.” To my mind, that is a more helpful translation. When Mark described the resurrection of Jesus later on in this gospel, he will used the same Greek verb to say that Jesus “…has been raised up.” Therefore, when Jesus took this feverish lady by the hand and raised her up, He is helping us to understand why He came into this world in the first place. He is helping us to understand His saving mission. Just as Jesus took her by the hand and raised her up from her sick bed, so one day He will raise her up to share His resurrection. Peter’s mother-in-law is a gospel symbol for each of us. (1)
There is an implication here that we want to pay close attention to.
In a later verse of today’s gospel, we are also told that when Jesus went off by himself to pray, Peter and the others came in search of Him. And when they found Him, they blurted out, “Everyone is searching for you.”
See what Mark is telling us in these two incidents. All of us want to be healed of our fevers. We flock to Jesus. All of us want to be raised up on the last day to the everlasting joy of resurrected life, a time when there will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more sickness. Jesus hears the cry of our hearts. He heals our fevers as a sign that one day He will raise us up to eternal life.
Meanwhile we wait. And what do we do in the time of waiting?
We get ready for the promised everlasting life by turning around to become the healing instruments of the love of Jesus Christ in the lives of others. That is precisely what Peter’s mother-in law did ~ she got up and served them. She became a disciple of Jesus and in doing so became the instrument of His love and healing.
Jesus would like each of us as His disciple to become the instrument of His love and healing.
- David McClelland, of Harvard Medical School, has demonstrated the power of love to make the
body healthier through what he calls the “Mother Teresa Effect.” Here’s how he did it. Before showing
a documentary film on the life of Mother Theresa to a group of college students, he measured the levels
of immunoglubulin A (IgA) in their saliva. Immunoglubulin A is an antibody active against viral
infections, such as colds. Then he showed the film about Mother Teresa. The film shows Sister
ministering in her loving way to the sick, the dying, the poorest of the poor. Now, many of the students
who viewed this film considered Mother Theresa over religious, insincere, even a phony. After showing
the film of her ministering to the sick and the dying with such obvious devotion and love, a second time
he measured the immunoglubulin A in each student’s saliva. Every student had a significant rise in
immunoglubulin A ~ every student ~ even those who did not have favorable attitudes toward her. His
conclusion: tender loving care is a valuable element in healing.
Dr. McClelland has demonstrated the power of love to heal people in another way. He asked his graduate students simply to think about two things. He asked them to think about moments in their lives when they felt deeply loved and cared for by another person, and he asked them to recall times when they had shown great devotion and love in caring for others. In both instances immunoglubulin A had a significant rise in their bodies.
We can sum up the doctor’s findings this way: by observing loving care showed to other human beings, by remembering when we have been cared for and loved, by remembering when we ourselves were loving, caring people, our body responds by becoming healthier. Love, caring contribute to making us well! (2)
Second, the findings of the “Mother Theresa Effect” will hopefully awaken the desire in our hearts to reach out and touch others with tender loving care. Jesus has raised us up, and in gratitude we reach out in service to raise others up.
Let me tell you a story.
- Before Alcoholics Anonymous became a life-saving and a life-preserving mutual help group,
alcoholism was a sickbed from which a man or a woman seldom arose. Alcoholism stifled, killed,
ruined so many lives. Once booze locked a person into its addictive coils, for most people there was
no escaping.
One of the founders of AA is “Bill W.” In the Big Book, he tells about his healing encounter with Jesus. He met the healing power of Jesus in the caring love of an old school friend, a former drinking buddy. One day this friend just happened to call Bill and asked if he could drop by for a visit. This friend, it so happened, had undergone a miraculous recovery from alcoholism. With the help of God, he had escaped its addictive coils.
He told Bill W about his miraculous recovery. He told him that God had done for him what he could not do for himself. He had no will power over booze. Doctors had pronounced him incurable. Society was about to lock him up in a sanitarium. He admitted his complete defeat to the Lord. And he told Bill that his being cured of alcoholism was like being raised from the dead.
God, present in that man’s human heart, had wrought a miracle of healing. Sitting across the table from his friend, that night Bill W. found his thinking about miracles drastically changed. For directly across the kitchen table sat a miracle of God’s caring love. And he had great tidings for Bill. Bill tells us that he humbly offered himself to God. He experienced a sense of victory. That feeling of victory was followed by a sense of peace and serenity the like of which he had never felt before in his life. He had utter confidence. And here are his words, “I felt lifted up.” (3)
What a powerful gospel this is! What a wonderful message it has for each of us. Just as Jesus took Peter’s mother-in-law by the hand and “raised her up,” so He heals us through the loving concern of others. He raises us up. Then, just as He did with Peter’s mother-in-law, once we become a disciple of His, He sends us forth to heal other brothers and sisters through the ministry of our caring, loving heart.
That is the noble way Jesus invites us to live out our lives – as healers who have been healed. That is the way we best prepare for the great lifting up, the resurrection. With full and glad hearts, let us close this reflection with a prayer written by Cardinal John Henry Newman:
- “Oh, Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in your mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.”
(1) Patricia Datchuck Sanchez, in Celebration, February 6, 2000, Fifth Sunday in Ordinary
Time, commentary on Mark 1:29-39, p. 66.
(2) Victor Parachin, Daily Strength for Daily Needs, PastoraLink web site, Spiritual Life, Daily
Reflections, February 20, 2000, p. 1.
(3) LectionAid web site, February 6, 2000, Year B, 5th Sunday after the Epiphany.
(Comments to Ron at rsaunders@connriver.net )