Prelude to Lent 2010: By his wounds ‘we are healed’
- February 06, 2010
In a prelude to the start of the 2010 Lenten Season on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, San Francisco Archbishop George H. Niederauer, in his homily at a Mass for the World Day of Prayer for the Sick, Feb. 6, at St. Mary’s Cathedral, said, “The very sufferings of Christ are redemptive, healing, and life giving. That is the mystery of the Cross of Jesus Christ. That is the effect of the Paschal Mystery, in each of us and for all of us together as Church.”
The full text of the homily by Archbishop Niederauer follows:
Many Americans pride themselves on being rugged individualists, on being able to “go it alone.” Still, there are some things that all of us admit we cannot do alone: no one can get married alone, and no one can be in a friendship alone. Also, you cannot be a church all by yourself.
While he was proclaiming the Kingdom of God, Jesus Christ taught us and showed us that we need each other. Moreover, we need to be needed. In describing the Last Judgment, in Matthew’s Gospel, the 25th chapter, our Savior famously said: “The King will say to those on his right hand, ‘I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’”
How does all this apply to the World Day of Prayer for the Sick? Jesus Christ comes to us in the hungry, the stranger, the sick person, so that we can love and serve him in them. Also, Christ comes to those in need through us; he loves them and serves them through us, if we let him do so.
Some may ask, “Is this not merely a vague, spiritually romantic thought?” No, to make it very real and down to earth, the Church sets before us, front and center, the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Saint Paul said of his work as an apostle, “I preach nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” In particular, on Good Friday each year, at the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion, the first reading is from the prophet Isaiah, Chapter 53, the same words as our first reading today. We are told that the Savior would grow up “with no attractive appearance,” that he would be “spurned and avoided,” “a man of suffering.” However, he would be the source of our salvation because he “bore our infirmities, was pierced for our offenses, was crushed for our sins,” so that by his wounds “we are healed.” The very sufferings of Christ are redemptive, healing, and life giving. That is the mystery of the Cross of Jesus Christ. That is the effect of the Paschal Mystery, in each of us and for all of us together as Church.
In fact, St. Paul says a startling thing in his letter to the Colossians. He says: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, the Church.” Paul is not saying that the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is incomplete or inadequate. Rather Paul is saying that he – and we – can unite our suffering and sacrifices with those of Christ for the work of salvation.
Make no mistake: Christians are not in love with suffering – we do not glamorize, romanticize it or seek it out. However, neither do we run from it, nor do we interpret it as a sign of God’s anger or rejection. Because the Son of God became human with us in Jesus Christ, and embraced everything about being human, including suffering and death, and through his very suffering, death and resurrection merited forgiveness of sins and eternal life for us –because of his saving action, every human experience except sin has meaning and purpose and value in Christ.
This is a revolution in values that is still going on, and still being struggled with, twenty centuries after Jesus Christ lived, died and rose from the dead. The values of the Kingdom of God, set forth in the Beatitudes that begin the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel, are as absurd to the world around us as they were on that hillside in Galilee when Jesus first spoke them: “Blessed are the poor, the meek, the sorrowing, and those who are persecuted for the sake of justice.” Kingdom values do not match worldly thinking. They never have and never will.
That’s why our Gospel reading for today, Mary’s prayer, the Magnificat, is, in its way, so revolutionary. Consider the spiritual or moral revolution in Mary’s prayer: “My soul rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness” and has “dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.” Consider the social revolution in values as Mary prays: “God has thrown down the rulers from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly.” Consider the economic revolution in Mary’s prayer: “The hungry God has filled with good things; the rich he has sent empty away.”
Of course, we are the ones Jesus calls to make his new values valid and forceful in our world. Because of the work the Savior does in and through us the hungry are fed, no one is considered worthless, the weak and defenseless are defended against all tyranny and injustice, whether it is called abortion, euthanasia, neglect, ignorance, persecution, prejudice, or the like.
This work of embracing, proclaiming and implementing kingdom values is never at an end. However, at this Mass for the World Day of Prayer for the Sick, what we say and what we do here expresses our faith in, and commitment to, the values of the Kingdom of Jesus the Lord. We are nourished with the Sacrament of the Lord’s Body and Blood; we are strengthened by the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick; and we are consoled and renewed in our commitment to the Kingdom by our companionship in shared faith, hope, love, and service.
From February 12, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
