Father Jorge Miró shares with the readers of Exaudi his commentary on today’s Gospel, Sunday, February 4, 2024, titled “He cured many sick people of various illnesses”
***
Illness and suffering have always been among the most serious problems that afflict human life. In illness, man experiences his helplessness, his limits, and his finite.
Although it is part of the human experience, we never get used to it, not only because of its ailments but also because we have been created for life and life in abundance.
The Word of God that we proclaim today presents us with Jesus Christ healing the sick and casting out demons. He did not heal all the sick. His healings were signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God. They announced a more radical healing: victory over sin and death through his Passover. On the Cross, Christ took upon himself the full weight of evil and removed the “sin of the world”, of which illness is but a consequence.
Through his passion and his death on the Cross, Christ gave a new meaning to suffering: from then on it configures us with Him and unites us to His redemptive passion (cf. Catechism 1500s).
The experience of illness is a harsh test that can lead us to despair, like Job, or it can also be a path that leads us to holiness.
The key is to let the Lord enter into the midst of your sufferings, your ailments. Today’s Hallelujah tells us: Christ took our ailments and bore our diseases.
The Psalm has also told us: The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem… He heals broken hearts, he binds up his wounds… Our Lord is great and powerful, his wisdom is without measure… The Lord sustains the humble.
Pope Francis says in the encyclical Lumen fidei that in the hour of trial, faith illuminates us… The Christian knows that there will always be suffering, but that he can give it meaning, he can turn it into an act of love, of trusting surrender in the hands of God, who does not abandon us and, in this way, can constitute a stage of growth in faith and love.
The light of faith does not dispel all our darkness, but, like a lamp, it guides our steps in the night, and this is enough to walk. To the man who suffers, God does not give a reasoning that explains everything, but rather responds with a presence that accompanies him.
The presence of the sweet guest of the soul, of the comforting Spirit.
Christ is the one who comes to heal and defeat evil. His miracles are signs of the arrival of salvation. They are signs, they do not remain in themselves, but they guide towards the message of Christ, towards God and make us see that the true and deepest illness of man is the absence of God, source of truth, love and life.
And only reconciliation with God can give us true healing, true life, because a life without love and truth would not be life. The kingdom of God is precisely the presence of truth and love; and so it is healing in the depth of our being. That is why his preaching and the healings he performs are always united. In effect, they form a single message of hope and salvation (Benedict XVI).
What heals man is not avoiding suffering and fleeing from pain, but the ability to accept tribulation, mature in it and find meaning in it through union with Christ, who has suffered with infinite love (Spe Salvi 37).
Christ is the only one capable of healing us from all our ailments. Christ came into the world to heal, liberate and save men. Christ is still present among us doing good, healing ailments, drying tears, giving hope to a world that mourns his despair.
He who wants to be healed from his ailments must place himself in the hands of Jesus, allow himself to be filled with his light and his Word, receive the strength of his grace, accept the gift of the Holy Spirit.
From this perspective, we can understand why preaching the Gospel is a duty for Saint Paul.
Cheer up! Open your heart to the Lord! Give him your ailments, your sufferings, your helplessness, your failures, your history, your weaknesses, your sins, your complexes, your wounds! Give him everything you can’t handle!
Do not be afraid! Give it to the Lord! That’s what he came for! No one loves you like He does! And trust, rest, invoke the Holy Spirit! May your cross make fruitful and glorious!
He cured many patients with various illnesses: Commentary Fr. Jorge Miró
Sunday, February 4, 2024
Father Jorge Miró shares with the readers of Exaudi his commentary on today’s Gospel, Sunday, February 4, 2024, titled “He cured many sick people of various illnesses”
***
Illness and suffering have always been among the most serious problems that afflict human life. In illness, man experiences his helplessness, his limits, and his finite.
Although it is part of the human experience, we never get used to it, not only because of its ailments but also because we have been created for life and life in abundance.
The Word of God that we proclaim today presents us with Jesus Christ healing the sick and casting out demons. He did not heal all the sick. His healings were signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God. They announced a more radical healing: victory over sin and death through his Passover. On the Cross, Christ took upon himself the full weight of evil and removed the “sin of the world”, of which illness is but a consequence.
Through his passion and his death on the Cross, Christ gave a new meaning to suffering: from then on it configures us with Him and unites us to His redemptive passion (cf. Catechism 1500s).
The experience of illness is a harsh test that can lead us to despair, like Job, or it can also be a path that leads us to holiness.
The key is to let the Lord enter into the midst of your sufferings, your ailments. Today’s Hallelujah tells us: Christ took our ailments and bore our diseases.
The Psalm has also told us: The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem… He heals broken hearts, he binds up his wounds… Our Lord is great and powerful, his wisdom is without measure… The Lord sustains the humble.
Pope Francis says in the encyclical Lumen fidei that in the hour of trial, faith illuminates us… The Christian knows that there will always be suffering, but that he can give it meaning, he can turn it into an act of love, of trusting surrender in the hands of God, who does not abandon us and, in this way, can constitute a stage of growth in faith and love.
The light of faith does not dispel all our darkness, but, like a lamp, it guides our steps in the night, and this is enough to walk. To the man who suffers, God does not give a reasoning that explains everything, but rather responds with a presence that accompanies him.
The presence of the sweet guest of the soul, of the comforting Spirit.
Christ is the one who comes to heal and defeat evil. His miracles are signs of the arrival of salvation. They are signs, they do not remain in themselves, but they guide towards the message of Christ, towards God and make us see that the true and deepest illness of man is the absence of God, source of truth, love and life.
And only reconciliation with God can give us true healing, true life, because a life without love and truth would not be life. The kingdom of God is precisely the presence of truth and love; and so it is healing in the depth of our being. That is why his preaching and the healings he performs are always united. In effect, they form a single message of hope and salvation (Benedict XVI).
What heals man is not avoiding suffering and fleeing from pain, but the ability to accept tribulation, mature in it and find meaning in it through union with Christ, who has suffered with infinite love (Spe Salvi 37).
Christ is the only one capable of healing us from all our ailments. Christ came into the world to heal, liberate and save men. Christ is still present among us doing good, healing ailments, drying tears, giving hope to a world that mourns his despair.
He who wants to be healed from his ailments must place himself in the hands of Jesus, allow himself to be filled with his light and his Word, receive the strength of his grace, accept the gift of the Holy Spirit.
From this perspective, we can understand why preaching the Gospel is a duty for Saint Paul.
Cheer up! Open your heart to the Lord! Give him your ailments, your sufferings, your helplessness, your failures, your history, your weaknesses, your sins, your complexes, your wounds! Give him everything you can’t handle!
Do not be afraid! Give it to the Lord! That’s what he came for! No one loves you like He does! And trust, rest, invoke the Holy Spirit! May your cross make fruitful and glorious!
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