Jesus' Attentiveness to Need

In today's Gospel, Luke 7: 11-17, Jesus raises the only son of a mother to life as he is being carried out for burial.  Without the grief-stricken mother asking Jesus for help, He intervenes to dissolve her dire straits, as women in her culture who had no husband or no sons were doomed to the status of a slave, were treated as second-class citizens. They had little or no rights, were not allowed to attend worship, were not allowed to go out in public or to talk to strangers, nor were they allowed to testify in court.  Women in her circumstances were reduced to a level of helplessness that was, in my opinion, cruel.  Jesus was moved to compassion!

In our day, Jesus also is moved to compassion in the areas of our lives where we experience helplessness.  Are we willing to bring our helpless situations to the Lord? If not, why not?

The Gift of Faith, Hope and Love

“…[B]ecause of the hope reserved for you” is the reason St. Paul ascribes to the Colossians’ faith in Jesus and their “love for the holy ones” ((Colossians 1: 1-8).  This is the same hope and faith in Christ Jesus that motivated Simon and his companions, in today’s Gospel, Lk 4: 38-44, to ask Jesus to intercede for Simon’s mother-in-law, who was afflicted with a severe fever. Jesus “stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.”  It was faith, hope, and love in the hearts of people who, that day at sunset, came to Peter’s house bringing “people sick with various diseases.” Jesus “laid hands on each of them and cured them. And demons also came out from many, shouting ‘You are the Son of God.’ But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.”  Jesus worked all night, healing the people who were brought to him. “At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place.”

Like the people in today’s Gospel, we, too, need to present our “diseases” and “demons” to Jesus. As He  walked the earth in Palestine, Galilee, Capernaum and other mid-East cities, towns, and villages, healing all who came to Him, so, too, today does He walk among us, healing us and casting out our demons, working in the darkness of our lives.  You may object, saying “I’ve begged Jesus to heal my mother, mother-in-law, son, daughter, my wife/husband, my friend and nothing’s happened!  He doesn’t pay any attention to me.”  It may seem that way. However, Jesus sees the whole picture—He sees what healing really needs to occur and which needs to be withheld for a deepening of our faith, hope and love to which  our physical seeing may be blind. And when we are left in the darkness of our “nights,” God is always at our side.  Darkness is not dark to Him, so He will lead us by the hand and secure our wobbly, doubting steps.

"Lord, I believe; help my unbelief" (Mk 9:24).