We are all familiar with the stories of Jesus’ healing individuals. The Gospels highlight many of them: the cure of the ten lepers, the man born blind, the crippled man at the Pool of Bethesda, the centurion’s servant, the raising of the daughter of Jairus and, cited in today’s Gospel, the cure of Peter’s mother-in-law. There is a certain drama in these cures.

But today’s reading, along with many similar passages in the Gospels, describes scenes of multiple healings. “And when the sun was down, all that had any sick with diverse diseases, brought them to him. But he laying his hands on them, every one of them, he healed them.”

Jesus proclaimed the nearness of the Kingdom of God by his preaching, but he realized it by his making people whole. This Kingdom, which he personified and proclaimed, was the restoration of all that had been lost in the Fall. Genesis tells of God’s punishment of all of creation because of disobedience and pride. The wholeness, the peace, the integrity of creation was lost.

Jesus’ incarnation, preaching, death and resurrection brought the Kingdom into reality. But it was clear that the work of continuing the realization of that Kingdom was handed on to his disciples as he sent them forth and commissioned them. We, as his disciples, are commissioned in every Eucharistic celebration to continue this mission.

How do we, as disciples, bring wholeness to those who are forgotten on the fringes, those who live in terror as refugees, those who suffer depression, loneliness, mental illness, hunger and alienation?

Let Us Pray:

God of all creation, all that comes from you is good. Your Word, in the Incarnate Jesus, showed us your love and your passion to transform us once again into people of peace, compassion, love, and wholeness. God, we beg you, bestow upon us an abundance of your grace to respond to your love by our love for all that you have created in love. Amen.