Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 8, 2021
After making the crossing to the other side of the sea,
Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret
and tied up there.
As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.
They scurried about the surrounding country
and began to bring in the sick on mats
to wherever they heard he was.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
they laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.
I have often struggled with gospels like this in which Jesus cures the sick. Why does Jesus cure everyone in the Bible stories, but not in real life today? Why are some cured, but
not others?
When my husband, Bill Bula (’77), was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor, I prayed for a miracle, but it didn’t happen. This led me to a second question. Why are some prayers answered and others not? What is the point of prayer?
I contemplated how Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane as he faced his imminent death ”Abba, Father for all things are possible: remove this cup from me.” I walked with Jesus in that moment as I prayed, “Cure him.” “Remove this cup from him (and from me).” Jesus then went on to say “Yet, not what I want, but what you want.” However, that was not part of my prayer. I wanted my way. I wanted Bill to live. And who among us would not want to hold on to a dear loved one?
Anxiety and fear consumed me. I was afraid that I couldn’t cope with the ravages of this disease that consumed Bill and our family, and in the future, a life without my soulmate of 40 years?
Physically exhausted from caring for my partially paralyzed husband; mentally depleted from fighting insurance companies, monitoring his seizures, and managing his medications: emotionally spent from watching my husband morph from a strong partner to a confused person, grappling with his own imminent death, my prayer changed to “I am weak and tired. Give me strength.”
Eventually, when we witness a loved one in so much pain, we get to a point when our prayer becomes “OK, God, please take him (or her).” And for a brief moment, we join Jesus in the second half of his prayer ”not what I want, but what you want.”
Maybe that’s the point of prayer… to help us through the difficult times in our lives.
Prayer
Jesus the Christ, when the people of Gennesaret saw you, they recognized your healing power and the love and power of your teaching. Wherever you enter our lives, help us to recognize you and to be open and responsive to the healing and the Gospel message you offer us. Give us the grace to be instruments of your healing and grace in the lives of others. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Imprisoned, St. Jerome Emiliani made a deal with Mary—if she freed him, he would dedicate his life to serving God. That's just what happened.
Jerome was born in Venice, Italy, in 1481. When he was a teenager, his father died, and Jerome ran away from home. It may have been this experience as a homeless and orphaned teenager that allowed Jerome to identify with other abandoned children and devote his adulthood to serving them.
Joining the military pulled Jerome from his wayward path, and he soon rose in rank to command a league of forces in charge of a castle near Venice. When the fortress was captured, he was imprisoned in a dungeon.
There, in the dungeon, he had a lot of time to think, and he gradually learned to pray. He prayed to Mary and promised that if she helped him escape, he would live a life worthy of being called a Christian. She appeared to him in a vision, freed him from his chains, and led him out past his captors. When he returned to Venice, he placed his shackles in a Church as an offering of thanksgiving and a sign of his dedication.
He immediately began studies for the priesthood, and cared for the poor he found in Venice. He was ordained in 1518 amidst an outbreak of a plague, and he continued to care for the sick—especially for children who were orphaned by the sickness. He took these orphans into his own home and fed, clothed, and taught them. He was the first to use a question-and-answer format to teach children the Catholic faith, an approach that became common in catechisms.
He would wander the streets of Venice to bury the dead who had died of the plague that day. Eventually, he caught the fever himself, but survived, and he redoubled his efforts to help those who were suffering. He founded six orphanages, a hospital, and a shelter for prostitutes.
Others started to gather around him to help him, and he established a religious order of priests dedicated to the care of orphans, called the Clerks Regular of Somascha, after the place where they had their headquarters. This order continues his work today in a dozen countries.
St. Jerome is patron saint of orphans and abandoned children, and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Jerome Emiliani, you braved the plague to care for children who were orphaned by it, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Jerome Emiliani is in the public domain. Last accessed December 5, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
