Sunday 4 Advent (C-2006): Sacrament of the Sick

The healing of the sick was one of the signs foretold by the prophets of the Messiah.

            He would have power to make the blind see, the lame walk and the deaf hear.

            The vast crowds that came to Jesus, and almost trampled on him in their fever to touch him, were arguably motivated above all by his power to heal physical sickness.

            Sickness is not what the Creator had planned for human beings.

            So, while it is correct to say that it is a symptom of our humanity, it is still more accurate to say, “of our fallen humanity.”

            That word, “fallen”, says it all. It’s not a word we like. It jars with our sense of dignity and independence. It contradicts the promethean vision contemporary men and women have of themselves.

            But unless the truth of our fallen nature is admitted, our illusions of grandeur remain just that.

            For sickness entered the world through a fall from grace, not as a work of grace.

            Sickness is physical proof of the existence of a far greater and far deeper evil, the evil of sin.

            It is not that someone’s sickness is proportionate to their own personal sin. If that were the case, then I would be in intensive care at Sibley!

            Rather, just as there is a collective share in original sin because we all share the one human nature, so there is a collective vulnerability in the human body since our bodies are part of that common nature.

            We are all united with one another, whether we admit it, or like it, or not. We “infect” one another for good and for ill.

            For the same reason of the double “inter-linkage” between soul and body and between each and all, we suffer the greatest sickness of all, which is not cancer or AIDS, but mortality.

            As physical death is the ultimate sickness of the body, damnation is the ultimate sickness of the soul.

Understanding why sickness exists is important, because then we can understand better what Jesus was born to do and to be for us.           

            He could have come and healed everyone’s physical sickness, although in fact he only healed an infinitesimal number of people in human history.

            If we ask “why don’t you heal me, Jesus?” we misunderstand him.

            Other than out of human kindness, He healed the sick because he wanted them and everyone who knew them to believe in him.

            He wanted them to yearn for true healing, a healing which embraces both body and soul, that is, the complete, the whole of human nature.

            And what is that healing?

            It is the Resurrection from the dead.

            For even if we could all be free of sickness before death, and we should certainly seek to relieve suffering in accordance with the love and truth of Christ, we must still confront death.

            Only when death is destroyed can our healing be total and eternal.

            It is for this reason that Jesus himself came in a body like ours, vulnerable to sickness and to death.

            He did this to show how much God wanted to share in our condition out of his infinite love, and of how that love brought Jesus to offer himself for us in the sacrifice of his body and blood so that we might obtain through him the gift of everlasting health.

And so today, as we receive the sacrament of the sick, we approach it with the certainty of faith that, even if we are not healed of our physical afflictions, we will be strengthened spiritually to endure them.

            The sacrament will immerse us in a deeper inner union with Christ crucified and with Christ risen.

            By it we allow Jesus to take our sufferings to himself so that he may communicate to us the power and the hope of eternal healing.

            The sacrament is not magic.

            It is a living and deeply personal encounter with Christ only for those who believe in Him, in his victory over death and in his will to associate us with the suffering he must still undergo for the sake of his body, the Church.

            Only if you have such faith, can you benefit fully from the sacrament.

            Only if you carry the Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus in your heart can you benefit from it in a worthy manner.

            My dear sick brothers and sisters, Christ calls you to holiness, to lift up your hearts to him in trust and loving faith.

            We are blessed to have you among us, for in you the Crucified speaks to us, loves us, lives among us and challenges us be ready to suffer and die for him, to be vulnerable to the piercing sword of his divine love.

I know the days and nights can be long, lonesome and anguished.

            I know that sickness can mean humiliation and impoverishment.   But I also know that, through it all and because of it all, you will, in the courage of faith, keep the Cross of Christ high in our community.

            It was for the Cross that Christ first came.

            It is to judge the world by the Cross that he will come again.

            We give him thanks that you are among us now to keep that Cross before our eyes, for in it alone is salvation, life and resurrection.

            By it alone are we saved and made free.

Msgr. Peter Magee

Sunday, December 24th, 2006

Annunciation, DC: 10.30 am