The Problem of Death

1. God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living (Wisdom 1:13).
2. The problem of evil, suffering and death imposes itself on each one of us eventually. For some people in the modern world, the reality of suffering is enough to convince them that God does not exist. They might say "if there was a God, He would certainly not let this thing happen"... whatever it is. Such a statement does not really disprove the existence of a Supreme Being. Maybe those who deny God’s existence see suffering as proof that the universe is irrational and meaningless. Of course, how then could one reason to that conclusion? But not to get sidetracked.... Maybe those who deny God are just treating Him like they would any other relative or acquaintance who they perceive is offensive- they simply ignore Him.
3. The biblical view of suffering and death however is that God did not create it. (The book of Wisdom (1:13-15; 2:23-24) reiterates the book of Genesis (first two chapters) in reminding us that creation is essentially good because it has being. God created all things and declared them good. Death, however, is the result of sin (the envy of the devil and the disobedience of Adam and Eve)- that is the failure to do God’s will. Saint Augustine would say that evil then was the lack of some aspect of goodness which God had created and intended. For example, illness is the lack of health. Hunger is the lack of nutrition. Sorrow is the lack of joy. Death is the lack of life. Since God made all human beings in His image and likeness, to have being, to exist, to live is God’s most basic intention for us. Only through failure to live in God’s image and likeness can death intrude.
4. The book of Wisdom continues by saying they who belong to his (the devil's) company experience death (Wisdom 2:24). This is not to say that since everyone is dying that we are all in the company of the devil. But rather It was the wicked who with hands and words invited death, considered it a friend, and pined for it, and made a covenant with it (Wisdom 1:16). Those who follow the devil will experience the second death of being permanently alienated from their true destiny which is union with God.
5. God did not make death, nor does He rejoice in the death of the living. Rather, our Lord confronted suffering and death in His earthly life. He healed the sick and raised the dead back to life. On the one hand, these miracles were signs of who Jesus is- that is the all powerful God- and signs of the salvation He won for us- namely the ultimate freedom from these evils which His death and resurrection obtained for us. These signs are evidence to us that God does not rejoice in our destruction. Our Lord permits us to suffer because it is the result of free will. But at the same time, our Lord opposed death and still opposes it.
6. Our Lord has a healing will, but not everyone who saw Him or touched Him was healed. In Mark 5, The disciples noticed that many touched Jesus, but only one was healed of her illness. Likewise, many people in those days had one of their children die. But not all did Jesus bring back to this life. What was the difference? Did Jesus freely decide to heal that one and let another suffer and die? That is not how the Bible portrays His ministry. The difference is in those who turned to Him in need. The woman with the hemorrhage believed and trusted that Jesus had the power to heal her. Even though circumstances looked bad, the synagogue official trusted that Jesus could heal his daughter. Their trust was more powerful than their sorrow and suffering. And as a result of their faith, they received the healing which they ardently desired.
7. The lesson which Saint Mark is trying to teach is that we must believe and trust in Jesus, putting fear aside, if we want to experience His power in our lives. Others may ridicule us- no matter. Others may appear to be doing exactly what we are, but with no effect- we cannot let that stop us from trusting.
8. Of course, many of us may have prayed sincerely and trustingly for a healing which we have not obtained. Does that mean we just do not have enough faith? We might not, but the failure to receive the miracle is not an indication of our lack of faith. (We ought to remember that Abraham and Sarah had to wait 24 years for God’s promise of a son.) Jesus’ conquered death, but He did more. He changed its meaning. Our suffering makes us like Him (that is, suffering and death can make us more like Jesus Christ). By changing death, Jesus made death different not just for those who would believe in Him later, but even for all those who lived before His time. All have the offer of union with Christ the Lord. Only those who reject Jesus and His passion, death and resurrection truly experience death in all its horror and emptiness.
9. In the Sacrament of the Sick, many times people are healed of their illness. But much more often they are healed spiritually or morally. And this kind of healing is far more important than physical healing because it can last forever. But we have to trust, for God will not force His love upon us. Nor will Jesus make us live in the home of His Father if we do not want it. No, we must put ourselves into His hands. Do not be afraid; just have faith! (Mark 5:36).

1. There is a saying there is no one so blind as the one who will not see. Such is the case of those who opposed both the man born blind and Jesus. They simply would not see that Jesus was from God. All they could see was that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, which in their opinion was a violation. They could not consider that someone regained their sight on the day when we are supposed to put all our trust in God to care for us. Furthermore, although they did not even know the blind man (recall that they had to call the parents to ask them is this your son, who you say was born blind? (John 9:19), they presumed that he was full of sin since his birth, all because he had been born blind. As the events unfolded, they became more blind to the truth.
2. Saint Augustine reminded us that sins blinds the sinner. All sin, large or small, dulls the senses. If we go keep sinning, eventually we become blind to our faults and cannot see things the way they really are. That is why those who go to frequent confession are able to confess more accurately what they are doing than those whose confession is infrequent. Unfortunately, sin in one area of life, be it pride, willfulness, lies, unkind speech, theft, unforgiveness, or the multitude of means of impurity, these sins affect the whole of one’s life. Unrepented, unconfessed, unchecked, unforgiven sin in any area of life will not only weaken weaken the whole person, but it can lead to the loss of faith in Jesus Himself.
3. Be warned! Do not think that this loss of holiness or faith could not happen to you. The pharisees who opposed Jesus studied the Bible every day, yet they did not recognize Him or turn to Him for help. One of the sorrows that grieved Jesus the most in the Gospel was the refusal of people to realize that they needed God’s forgiveness. All of us do. Even consider those pharisees who were following Jesus. Some of them were more concerned about being insulted than in receiving what Jesus was offering - the true light to see things as they really are. And so Jesus had to say to them - “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains (John 9:41). If we do not see the need for God’s mercy and forgiveness given to us through Jesus, then we are in darkness.
4. On the other hand, there is an opposite movement on the part of the man born blind. Jesus smeared mud on his eyes and instructed him to wash in the pool of Siloam (which is a prefigurement of Baptism). There, he regained his sight, or in other words, he was illuminated- the light was able to enter into him and he could see. But the man received more than the gift of sight, he received faith. With his eyes, he was able to see Jesus was a man. But with the gift of faith, the man was able to see much more. He could see Jesus as Lord and God- which is how things really are. At first, he gives the witness - the man called Jesus made clay (John 9:11). Later he was asked, what do you have to say about Him, since He opened your eyes? (John 9:17), the man was able to say he is a prophet (John 9:17). The third time, the man argues with the pharisees and insists that Jesus comes from God and does God's will- Jesus is Holy (John 9:30-33). Finally, he says to Jesus I do believe Lord (John 9:38) and worships Jesus.
5. Of course, the question that this event raises is: who do I say Jesus is? Can I see Him for what and who He really is, or is something blocking my vision of the truth?
6. Everyone acknowledges that Jesus was man. Some people even believe that Jesus was a great man. Many people also recognize that Jesus was a prophet- that is, sent by God. But that kind of faith is not enough to be considered a Christian. The truth is that Jesus is Lord and God. The primary act of belief for a Christian is not to believe in a list of things (as important as those things are), but to believe in a person- Jesus- and adore Him as our only Lord.
7. That being said, Saint Paul says You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord (Ephesians 5:8). We did not simply receive Light. We are light. Jesus said that we are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). And one does not light a lamp and put it under a basket (Matthew 5:15). We are called by God and given the light of faith to illumine the world. And so we cannot permit sin to have a place in our lives any more. We must live as if faith in Jesus makes us different from the world of darkness. And when we fall, we must turn back to Jesus in the Sacrament of Penance to remove the darkness and restore us to the Splendor of Light.

Tearing the Roof Apart

1. It is I, I, who wipe out, for my own sake, your offenses; your sins I remember no more (Isaiah 43:25). A sin is an offense against God, a disobedience of His commands. Sin harms our relationship with God, and our relationship with other people. Sin can even be so deadly as to cause us to lose our destiny in heaven. (In other words go to hell). One might imagine that God could just let all those things go and let people do whatever they wanted to with no consequences. (God loves us after all, how could He bear to punish us with Hell?) But really, even if those with deadly sin entered into glory, they would be miserable being surrounded on every side by the love of God and in the presence of those who do all in their power to serve the Lord. Those who prefer darkness shrink from the light.
2. What the Lord is talking about in the prophet Isaiah is not simply to acquit us of crimes of which we are truly guilty, to pretend that we have done nothing wrong or say it simply does not matter. Rather if the Lord forgets something, then it does not exist. By forgetting our sins, the Lord does not simply declare us to be innocent, but He makes us innocent. Observe the paralytic in the Gospel of Mark: Jesus did not simply declare the man’s sins forgiven, He took away his paralysis which was a consequence of those sins. Jesus made him whole. And as a result of this great sign, all those present glorified God.
3. A notable feature of this healing miracle is that the paralyzed man could not come to Jesus on his own. But his friends desired his healing so much that they tore open the roof and let him down in front of Jesus. And Jesus did not heal the paralytic simply because of the paralytic’s faith. Rather, it was the faith of his friends that motivated Jesus to heal. Jesus saw their faith. We are called to imitate these wonderful friends. Sometimes others are simply unable to come to Jesus on their own. Maybe they are afraid, maybe they believe they are not worthy, maybe sin has paralyzed them. In that case, we must place them before Jesus in faith, begging Him to heal the sins that paralyze them. We must never give up. If the friends of the paralytic did not have an active faith, he would have remained not only paralyzed, but oppressed by his sins. In the same way, there are many areas of our lives which we must bind together to be effective. We need our family, we need our friends, we need our parish, we need our diocese, we need the whole Church.

Lepers

Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (link to the Bible readings)
The Law of Moses stipulated that certain kinds of skin conditions were to be considered leprous. Those who suffered from these conditions were ritually unclean. Furthermore, they had to separate themselves from the general community. Probably not all of these had the illness now known as Hansen’s disease, but there was sufficient fear in the community that separation seemed right. We may look at such behavior as barbarous but we really have to understand that anti-biotics and other such treatments are relatively recent in the history of the world, in fact less than 100 years ago. Even in our own country there were leper colonies. There was one in Louisiana and the most famous one was on the island of Molokai in Hawaii. From the point of view of the community, separation of the lepers was a means to protect the community from the spread of the disease. The advanced forms were terrible to behold.

Although the treatments available for Hansen’s disease has made leper colonies a thing of the past, there may be other diseases or problems which are met with the same fear. When I was about to begin training in a hospital chaplaincy program, I had the Tuberculosis test as part of the general course. My skin test came back positive and immediately the manner in which I was treated by the hospital staff changed. They were terrified of me and in fact treated me rudely. (A chest x-ray revealed that I did not have the disease).

In the ancient world, leprosy was the kind of disease which people knew that only God could cure. If someone did in fact become well, they were instructed to present themselves to the priests who would declare them clean. Then they were to offer a special sacrifice to God in thanksgiving.

The general attitude of the People of God was that all diseases or illnesses or physical malfunctions or even problems were the result of sin. Indeed this belief is not foreign to us as Christians. The Original Sin of Adam and Eve brought corruption to the whole universe. Yet we know that not every problem is the result of a particular sin. Because leprosy was visibly corrupting the skin, and because of fear of contagion, leprosy was a sign of sin. The separation of the lepers from the community and the requirement that they shout Unclean, unclean and go about in torn clothes further added to sorrow. Only God could heal it, only God could really integrate someone back into the community.

The leper approached Jesus to ask for healing (Mark 1:40) because he believed that Jesus had the power to heal this dread disease. All that was lacking was the will of Jesus to accomplish it. And Jesus responded I do will it, be made clean (Mark 1:41). It is a sign of Jesus’ divine nature. He not only heals the man of a terrible ailment, but He provides for his reintegration into the community.

Note that Jesus does not simply accept the leper as a leper. I mean, Jesus did accept him and did not reject his entreaties. Jesus loved him. But in His love, Jesus did not leave him a leper. Nor did Jesus force the priests of the temple to accept the leper as clean when he was in fact, unclean. Rather, Jesus healed the man. Jesus made him clean. Such is the power of God.

Leprosy is a pretty good sign for sin (Although to suffer from leprosy itself is not sinful). When a person disobeys God, it just does not affect them alone, it affects the whole community. Lies and theft destroy trust. Murder destroys not only human lives, but often evokes the desire for revenge. Adultery and other sins of the flesh turns others into objects and is a sin against the family. Of course the worship of false gods puts a person’s whole life in disorder. There are sins which are so grave that they prevent a Christian from receiving Holy Communion. We do not require them to shout Unclean, but certainly that is how many people feel.

Although some sins make it inadvisable to receive communion, there is no sin for which we cannot receive God’s mercy and forgiveness. All we have to do is repent and ask God’s help. As well they should. We ought to return to him for the forgiveness of sins and the healing of our souls. Jesus indeed has the power to heal us. And just like He said to the leper I do will it, be made clean, Jesus has a healing will for our sins.

And the forgiveness we receive can be a great sign for others. When the leper told everyone what Jesus did for him, many others were convinced to come to Jesus to experience His mercy. So too, when others see and hear what Jesus has done for us, they will want to experience the healing of their souls too.

*A great book to read is the biography of Saint Damien, called "Damien the Leper" by John Farrow.