Highlights of Religious Issues
1. Why God did not destroy all evil persons all at once?
(Statement to be inserted soon.)
2. What does Miracle mean to us?
A Homily about "Miracle" by Fr. Scott Hurd, Sep. 6, 2009, See also http://www.fatherscott.org/
My surfing days came to an end the summer before last. While vacationing with my family at the beach in the summer of 2002, I was enjoying body surfing some rather small waves in what seemed to be safe conditions. Unfortunately, the waves were breaking close to the shore, and one wave in particular flipped my head over heels, slammed me into the sand, and broke my collar bone clean in half. When I went to see a specialist, I was told that surgery was the only thing that could attach the ends of the bones back together.
I opted not to have the surgery, at least right away. However, seven months later in late 2002 or early 2003 I retuned to the same doctor for a follow-up visit. When he returned with my x-rays he was ecstatic. My shoulder had completely healed, something which he said bordered on the miraculous. "But doctor," I said, "I didn't pray for a miracle!" To which he replied with a smile: "But I did!"
This little chapter in my life serves to remind me that the healing ministry of Jesus, which we heard about in today's gospel, didn't end in New Testament times. Instead, it continues and flourishes even today: Through the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, through Christians who have a special healing gift from the Holy Spirit, through the knowledge and skill of medical professionals, and through the prayers we offer for ourselves and for others. Indeed, the healing of my collar bone may very well have come about through my doctor's intercessions on my behalf.
You may have heard of the famous study that tracked two separate groups of heart-attack patients in a San Francisco hospital. One group was prayed for by others, even though the patients didn't know it; and the other group was not prayed for at all. Remarkably, the study revealed that patients who weren't prayed for were nearly twice as likely to suffer health complications as those who were prayed for.
This study is but one example of the growing interest in what might be called the "healing power of religion." There's a great deal of study and writing being done today on the "health benefits" of being religious. Dr. Harold Koenig of Duke University's Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health says that virtually every scientific study "suggests that involvement in a religious community is associated with about a seven-year difference in survival." In terms of longevity, he adds, "that makes religious faith the equivalent of not smoking cigarettes."
Studies like these are important, I think, as they can help lead people to faith, and encourage them to pray. However, we also need to be cautious about them. We don't want to present religion as simply an element of healthy living, like exercising or eating nutritious foods, and we don't want to reduce Christian discipleship to just being an attempt at "self-improvement." Nor do we wish to suggest that one religion is as good as another, as some of these studies might imply. And we don't want to create false expectations or unreasonable hopes that if a person is a Christian he or she will live a life largely free of illness or pain. Maybe this is one reason why Jesus, in today's gospel, told people to keep the news of his healing power a secret.
At its heart, authentic Christianity is about a freely-entered relationship with the living God, who himself is free to choose to physically heal us, or not. Jesus did not heal all the sick during his earthly ministry, nor are all people of faith healed today. Instead, the healing miracles Jesus performed were a sign of his divinity and that in him the kingdom of God was breaking into the world- an event anticipated by the prophet Isaiah in the beautiful words of today's first reading. Most significantly, all of Jesus' healing miracles ultimately announce a more radical healing: His Easter victory over death and sin, of which sickness is only a consequence. That we understand this is critical, as it serves to remind us that our hope for a life free of pain and sickness lies in the future, and is not to be found in the present.
Why God chooses to heal some and not others is ultimately shrouded in mystery. It's been suggested thatGod heals people if it will help them become more loving; the Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of God's giving a "restoration of health, if it is conducive to the restoration of (a person's) soul." However, we can say for certain that if a person isn't healed, it's not because God doesn't care, or because he's not listening to our cries and prayers, or that he's punishing the person who is suffering. God does care, he does listen, and he is not vindictive.
And he's far from indifferent to our suffering. Indeed, he himself has suffered, and even died, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet he is also risen, risen to a new life to which he invites you and me. We share a glimmer of this life even now through the grace given us at baptism, and we taste of it in the Eucharist. Yet its fullness will be realized only when Jesus comes again, to restore heaven and earth to the perfection he intended for it at the dawn of creation. At that time, at the resurrection of the body, we too will be made whole.
Until then, however,our present brokenness makes us long forthis promised restoration, of which Jesus' miraculous healings, both then and now, are but a sign. We might say, then, that Jesus' healings are fundamentally about hope: Hope that this life isn't all there is; hope that suffering is not without meaning; hope that all tears will one day be wiped away; hope that death doesn't have the final word; and hope that any health we might enjoy today, is but a glimmer of the good things yet to come.
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B - 23rd Sunday Bible Readings in Ordinary Time, Sep. 6, 2009
First Reading, Isaiah, Ch 35, verses 4-7a
Thus says the Lord: Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be Strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the dumb will sing. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe. The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsting ground, springs of water.
Second Reading, James, Ch 2, verses 1-5
My brothers and sisters, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Sit here, please," while you say to the poor one, "Stand there," or "Sit at my feet," have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs?