[Deacon Mick gave a good one today. As always you can check out the whole Mass here. And hey, I’ve also learned how to post just the homilies on YouTube. You can do that here.
The readings today
address the sickness and suffering of people that
filled a typical day in the life of Jesus.
In one degree or another,
sickness and suffering are universal experiences.
And never so much as in today’s world.
You might say suffering is very democratic (with a small ‘d”).
It doesn’t come only to the selfish;
it doesn’t come only to the sinful;
it doesn’t come only to people who are evil.
It comes to the young and to the old,
to the wise and to the foolish,
to saints and to sinners.
Our first reading today
from the Old Testament Book of Job
is sometimes called “Job’s Lament.”
He says,
“My pain is more than I can bear.
I can’t sleep at night.
I shall not see happiness again.”
Job’s lament
is a cry we all feel within ourselves when
we became seriously ill or
when someone we love becomes ill or dies.
When we read in the Scriptures about
individuals speaking with God
and their mystical experiences,
we may or may not be able to relate to that, but
we can all connect to human suffering.
Maybe our hurt is not physical but emotional
like a marriage in distress or a friends betrayal
or being bullied in school.
When we feel pain,
regardless of the source,
we want to join Job and say.
“I shall never see happiness again/“
Into this world of suffering and pain comes Jesus.
In today’s Gospel reading,
the lord heals Simon’s mother-in-law and then
people with all sorts of illnesses.
In fact,
he heals so many people that
the Lord has to find time alone in the desert for prayer.
Some people are healed physically and others
are healed spiritually by the power of Jesus’ teaching.
Jesus sees that
the deepest healing we all need is spiritual.
That’s why the Lord moves on to preach in another town.
People are healed spiritually
when they are given the strength to accept their condition in life,
even to make their suffering a place of strength,
depth and compassion for others.
That’s a powerful, healing grace because
suffering can make us bitter, isolated, and self-absorbed.
It’s a sign of the touch of Christ
when our suffering gives us depth of understanding,
spiritual strength and compassion for others.
Now, this may sound like ambo rhetoric
until we see it happen in human lives
as people in the deepest suffering become like Christ.
In their suffering,
they see a deep truth about the world.
They see that
ours is not the perfect world and
we are not the perfect people
portrayed in television advertising.
They see that life
is not filled with happy endings as in the movies.
Through suffering we experience the fragility of life
and see what is important
and how we all need the grace and redemption of Christ.
When people unite their suffering,
which is always a sign of our broken world,
with the cross of Christ,
they make their own pain
an occasion for spiritual victory for themselves
and for others.
SO – It’s in this context that
we can best understand
the Sacrament of Healing,
the Sacrament of the Sick,
the Anointing of the Sick.
This is the sacrament that
for centuries was given to people who were seriously ill.
Eventually, it became limited to those who were dying
and then used to be called the last anointing
or the “Extreme Unction” or last rites.
But the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick
is meant to be a sacrament of spiritual healing, strength and peace.
And so the Church has restored it
as a sacrament not just for those at the point of death
but for all those who are seriously ill.
It can also be administered to those over 55 years of age.
I guess they feel we are so close to death after that age that
we should not take any chances.
But seriously,
as in all the sacraments,
the Lord Jesus is present in this sacrament
at a time in our life when we need him very much.
When we are seriously ill,
we are challenged in our faith.
We need the special help of God’s grace
in this time of anxiety so that
we will not be broken in spirit, or feel isolated and alone.
The Anointing of the Sick
gives us the courage and grace
to hold to our faith in the face of this challenge.
It helps us see that
when we think we are alone, we are not.
It helps us see that when our body is weak,
our soul can be strong.
It provides healing that
is sometimes physical, sometimes emotional and always spiritual.
When we feel that
no one could possibly understand what we are going through,
Jesus joins us in our suffering
and turns a moment of desperation
into a moment of conversion.
My brothers and sisters,
don’t wait until a loved one is expiring
or lapsing into unconsciousness
to call a priest.
When someone is seriously ill,
he or she needs this sacrament
when they can hear the words of the prayers
and make those prayers their own.
Illness can be frightening.
The Anointing of the Sick assures us that
Jesus is with us.
He is there to protect us
from the doubts and anxiety that plagued Job.
He is there to give us
the courage and grace to journey with him
and even,
even to make our illness an instrument of salvation
to ourselves and to others so that
whatever illness may do to our body,
Jesus, through the Sacrament of the Sick
will bring clarity, peace and dignity to our soul.