February 12, 2006
Psalm 32 READING 2: 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
GOSPEL: Mark 1:40 -45
Do any of you have a favorite Super Bowl commercial? I do, and I’ll try to do it justice by telling you about it. A man is in a hospital bed in a pristine room with two doctors standing over the bed. I am guessing one is an attending physician and the other is probably a resident. The attending physician is looking at the man’s chart and a fly is buzzing around. The doctor shoos the fly away, but it keeps coming back and annoying the doctor. Meanwhile we see a woman and her little girl getting into the elevator. The little girl is holding a balloon. The doctors are continuing to suffer the fly until the resident picks up those things they use to jump start the heart that look like two irons. He turns them on and zaps the fly and just as the mom and little girl with the balloon get to the room’s door, he says: “That killed him!” There is a tendency today to believe that because the universe is far greater than we ever suspected, God is perhaps less perfect than we believed. This is part of the bad logic of judging by our own projections from appearances. The head of the Vatican Scientific Commission gave a speech recently and said that those well meaning Christians who try to defend God’s creativity by the creationist or intelligent design theories are limiting God’s omnipotence to their own limited imaginations. They are like the little girl who was drawing enthusiastically wit her crayons when her mother asked what she was drawing the little girl said,” God.” Her mother said, “Sweetheart, no on knows what God looks like.” She said, “They will now!” The truer point of view is the greater the universe, the more certain we are to have our minds lifted up to the thought of God’s eternal presence and power. He who takes care of the great universe is the only One to Whom we can trust our life. Similarly, the sadness of human hearts cannot be explained by any philosopher on this earth, but only by God Who is powerful enough to make the stars and Who holds the secret of healing in His Own Divine Heart. It is the same infinite God Who assumed a human nature and yet could be solicitous of the lost sheep, a woman taken in sin, a blind man, a broken hearted widow following the body of her only son and a thief on the cross. Everything Jesus did had more than momentary, immediate significance because anything Jesus did showed the Father’s way of love. It was the infinite God Who reached out and touched this leper in today’s Gospel. When we are suffering, it is not just sympathy we need, but the consciousness that we are in the strong hands of the Lord of all. The universe is vast and our understanding has a long way to go but God is not remote from the little life down here on earth. We may ask how God could miss us from the fold when He is shepherding the heavenly hosts. How often we say that it is the busiest person who is most likely to get something accomplished. This is nothing but an experiential confirmation that He Who made the heavens and lived for humanity spoke His tenderest love when His audience was one listener. Everyone else is too weak to heal a broken heart. He alone can do it. He Who counts the stars. The One Who has infinite power knows and chooses to heal the broken hearted and invites even the lepers to share the good news! Fr. Jeff McGowan |
