Homily for Ordinary Time 5 - February 4, 2018

Homily for Ordinary Time 5

February 4, 2018

The Great Value of Sickness

            It is providential that this Gospel occurs during one of our worst flu seasons ever, since it features Jesus performing numerous healing miracles. We all get sick – it’s just a part of life. But have you ever wondered why it is a part of life? If God is all-powerful and can heal us (as we see Jesus doing), why does He allow us to get ill?

            First of all, we have to understand that sickness was not part of God’s original plan. It came about as a result of original sin – it is part of the fallen nature that we all share as human beings. But please understand – sickness is not a punishment for sin, it is a remedy for sin. We take medicines that are bitter and taste disgusting to get well – likewise, if we approach sickness with a Christian view, it has the power to spiritually heal us.

            After all, Jesus, being fully human and fully divine, Himself got sick. We don’t have a record of that in the Bible per se, but the Gospels do say that Jesus got tired, hungry, thirsty – and of course suffered physically in His crucifixion. Since we believe that Jesus Christ is like us in all things but sin, I think it’s safe to assume that Jesus also got colds and flus, that He scraped His knees as a boy, that He probably had indigestion and banged His thumb with a hammer and all sorts of other physical ailments.

            So Jesus can show us the proper way to face sickness and suffering. Two things I would like to point out: first, Jesus shows us that we are never alone in our suffering. Second, Jesus shows us how to redeem our suffering and use it to make us holy.

            First of all, we are never alone in our suffering. It’s a frightening thing to face a cancer diagnosis, or to watch your child come down with the flu. Our first reaction might be, “God, where are You in all this? Don’t You care? Can’t You do something?” This is the reaction we see in Job from today’s first reading – he says, basically, “God, my life is misery! Where are You?”

            When I look at the Cross, I see the answer. I see a God Who is not afraid to enter into the mystery of human suffering and be with us. The prophet Isaiah says, “He bore our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” There was once a man of deep faith who was paralyzed from the neck down due to a car crash, unable to speak. His wife and a team of nurses took care of him, and every week the parish priest would visit him to pray with him. One week the priest came in, but the man looked restless – he was constantly moving his eyes, trying to communicate something to the priest. The priest didn’t know what he was trying to say, though, so he turned to the wife and asked, “What is he trying to tell me?” The wife answered, “Oh, Father, he’s asking you to move. He always likes to look at the crucifix, and you’re standing right in the way.” When we look at Christ on the Cross, we are reminded that we are never alone in sickness or suffering.

            Second, Jesus shows us how to redeem our suffering. Blessed Chiara Luce Badano was an ordinary teen girl who lived in Italy in the 1990s. She enjoyed the good things of life – playing guitar and tennis, hanging out with friends, watching movies. But she also had a deep faith in Jesus Christ through her parish youth group. When she was playing tennis one day when she was sixteen, she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder that wouldn’t go away. After many tests, it was determined that she had bone cancer. When told of her diagnosis, she said, “This is all for You, Jesus – if You want it, then so do I.”

            The chemotherapy and radiation was always painful, but she refused morphine, saying that she wanted to be fully conscious to offer her suffering to the Lord. When clumps of her hair would fall out, she would hold them up and say, “For You, Jesus.” She would take walks to brighten the day of another patient who was suffering from depression, even though it caused Chiara greater suffering to try to walk. In this suffering and sickness, she began to grow immensely in her love for God and neighbor; so much so that when she was visited by a bishop from Rome, the Bishop remarked, “The light in your eyes is amazing – where does it come from?” She replied, “I simply try to love Jesus as much as I can.”

            She died at the age of 18 but is now a Blessed in the Church. Her suffering was a critical part of her sanctification. By offering her suffering to the Lord, she was purified, much like gold and silver are refined by heating them up in fire. She grew in the virtues of kindness, patience, humility, and love.

            And this is where our faith sheds light on the mystery of suffering. God’s desire for you is not an easy life – God desires you to be holy – to be like Him. Recently in confirmation class, we were speaking about Padre Pio, who had the gift of the stigmata – the wounds of Christ. The kids were asking, “Why do you call it a gift? It would hurt to have the wounds of Jesus!” Yes, it hurts – but because Padre Pio wanted to become like Jesus Christ in everything, he knew that suffering with patience and uniting it to Christ’s suffering on the Cross would make him holy.

            My friends, with faith, we do not need to fear sickness, weakness, illness, and death. We are comforted by the fact that God does not abandon us in our sickness, and that He can use even our sicknesses to make us holy if we offer it to the Lord. So the next time you get a cold or flu, don’t waste that suffering – allow it to make you a saint!