I actually think the title of this post could easily serve as my reflection on the readings for this Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B of the Sunday lectionary cycle.
Following on the heels of last week, our Gospel for this Sunday starts with the very next verse of the first chapter of Mark. It bears noting, yet again, how dense this chapter is. Also worth noting, is that today's Gospel, narratively speaking, also takes place during the first day of Jesus' public ministry. It is an action-packed day that sees God's kingdom breaking into the world in a dramatic way. One hallmark of the Kingdom is healing and wholeness.
While our Gospel today conveys the Lord's healing activity in the aggregate, it's important to understand that for each person healed of an affliction, be it physical, psychological, or spiritual this is huge! No doubt, many people whom Jesus healed felt like Job: hopeless to the point of despair. Like Job, many were probably resigned to never seeing happiness again.
Jesus doesn't just bring hope to those in despair. He is hope itself. For those who, like Paul, have the hope that is Christ Jesus, we can't help sharing our hope, sharing Jesus. We do this after the manner of the apostle by serving others and becoming weak in the understanding that "when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor 12:10). Hope is healing.
Like the demon-possessed man in our Gospel for this past Monday, you share Jesus not merely or sometimes not even by telling those in despair "all that the Lord in his pity has done for you" (Mark 5:19 see also ). Rather, you must take pity, or, to put it more palatably, have compassion for, someone you encounter for whom things seem hopeless and who feel helpless. Thus, you show, not just say, "all that the Lord in his pity has done for you."
Healing, especially spiritual healing, can happen in a sudden, unmistakable way, or, as is often the case, slowly over time. Along with the anointing of the sick, penance is a sacrament of healing. The Eucharist, which Saint Ignatius of Antioch, in his Letter to the Ephesians, called "the medicine of immortality" and "the antidote to prevent us from dying," has healing properties as well. As the sacrament of sacraments, the Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist is a sacrament of initiation, a sacrament of healing, and a sacrament at the service of communion.
Let's not forget the basic fact that the Eucharist began to be reserved in order to take it to those who were ill. When you bring communion to the sick, you bring Christ in the fourfold way he is present in the Eucharistic celebration. The minister or extraordinary minister represents the assembly and the priest, at whose hands the Lord accepted our sacrifice, you share God's word, and then give Holy Communion.
It is precisely in these seemingly mundane, ordinary ways that we share Christ. It is by sharing him that the sharer also receives. For someone who may be thinking they've never had the experience with Jesus about which I am writing, service to others in Jesus' name for the sake of God's kingdom is the best way faciliate such encounters.
In light of this important and often underemphasized healing aspect of the Eucharist, we don't so much need a Eucharistic Revival as we need to let the Eucharist, with assitance from the sacraments of anointing and penance, revive us!
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