Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Today’s text

Mark 1:21-27

They went as far as Capernaum, and at once on the Sabbath he went into the synagogue and began to teach. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority. And at once in their synagogue there was a man with an unclean spirit, and he shouted, 'What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.' But Jesus rebuked it saying, 'Be quiet! Come out of him!' And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him.

Reflection

The razor-edged cry of the mad cuts the heart and awakens fear of what we can neither understand nor control.

And what of those who loved the man, who cared for him, fed and reared him when he was a child? What of his mother and father, cut to the heart and helpless as they look upon what has happened to their child?

Helpless, indeed, and hopeless, knowing his future is out of their hands and beyond their influence. They look on little believing anything can heal him, wondering also what, what they did, what could they have done, what might have made things turn out differently.

And all the while, blaming themselves.

It is not one man alone who rails against you Jesus, his mind twisted by disease so that he cannot know or give the love in which the Holy Mystery intended us to live, the love and sharing that makes us truly human. This is denied him.

But it is denied, too, to all those who know and care for him. His family and friends also suffer in bondage, all who look on and wonder what they, what anyone can do to help.

You do not wonder, Jesus. You command the demons of madness and destruction to flee the soul of the suffering, making well not just one, but the many whose lives he touches, most often with pain.

We hunger for your command, with authority, making well, revealing your determined will to heal your world and especially those whose struggles are also our own.

So come this day, Jesus. Come with power in the lives of those disfigured with illness and confusion, whose bodies and minds are thrown about by forces they cannot stop. Speak the world and heal them, Jesus.

Bring wholeness, soundness of body and soul, through all the resources and human hearts at your command that troubled souls may be released from bondage to freedom.

Pr. David L. Miller