Ordinary Time 28 - The Cure Of A Soul

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 28

October 12, 2025

The Cure of the Soul

 

            One of the great conversion stories in Christianity is the conversion of St. Francis of Assisi. He started out his life as a playboy, a party animal, and one who wanted fame and fortune as a knight. But his knightly career came to a halt when he was captured in battle and imprisoned for a year. This got him thinking – what is the purpose of my life? Am I truly happy pursuing the things of this world? What if, instead, I lived for God?

            When he was finally released, he began to pray, make sacrifices, and live in poverty so as to depend on God alone. But there was still one thing he hadn’t given to God – he was repulsed and disgusted at the sight of leprosy, which is a disfiguring disease of the skin where the sufferer begins to look so completely deformed that they look monstrous. Francis would be literally nauseated if he had to pass by one of those poor sufferers – but he knew that these poor souls were Jesus in disguise – and he would not be able to be a saint unless he was able to love Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor.

            So one day on his journeys, Francis came across a beggar who was particularly hideously disfigured from this disease. He knew it was now-or-never – he had to be “all-in” for Christ. So he dismounted his horse, came up to the man who was begging, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Instantly, the man was cured of his disease – but more importantly, St. Francis was cured of his repulsion to the sick. Francis’ first biographer, St. Bonaventure (who knew the saint personally), later wrote of this incident: “I don’t know what I should admire: such a cure, or such a kiss.” A man cured of leprosy, and a saint cured of selfishness – both acts of God!

            Naaman experienced both in the first reading. Naaman was a military general from Syria, which meant he was a pagan – he worshipped the Syrian gods. He had come to the Jewish prophet Elisha because he had heard rumors of his miracles – he came and was healed of his disease. But more importantly, he was healed of his idolatry. Greater than the physical miracle was the spiritual conversion, when he could declare, “Now I know there is no God except the God of Israel!”

            This same conversion happens to the Samaritan in the Gospel. Samaritans were dirty half-breeds, which is why the Jews hated them – they were half-Jewish, half-Babylonians, who didn’t worship God in the Temple in Jerusalem but instead worshipped God on a mountain called Mount Gerazim. They denied most of the Old Testament and only accepted the first five books, called the Torah. Basically, they had a corrupted relationship with God.

            So when the Samaritan receives his physical healing, he was also instantly converted to a right relationship with God when he comes back to worship Jesus Christ. Yes, he has gratitude, but more importantly, he has faith – and that is a more important miracle than a physical healing.

            Consider all the good things He has given us – He gave us life, family and friends, health, gifts and talents, this beautiful natural world. When we had turned our back on him through sin, He so desperately wanted to be with us that He took the punishment for all our sins and died in our stead. And now He passionately wants a personal relationship with us that lasts into eternity. How good is our God!

            And yet all these good things are meant for one thing only: for our holiness, that we may live in union with God. These blessings from God are not ends in themselves, but means to the end of loving God more perfectly. God desires primarily the spiritual health of the soul!

            This is important to remember when we are faced with suffering, too. Let’s be honest – how many of us turn to God more when we’re suffering than when we’re happy? And this is why God often does not answer our prayers for healing, or financial help, or fixing broken relationships – because perhaps those things we want would cause us to forget about God, or we wanted them just for our own ego or comfort. Consider – what would we do with that good health if God gave it to us? Would we use our strength to serve Him and do good to others, or do we want it just so we can be comfortable and resume our usual hobbies? What would we do with that financial success that we so desperately want – would we use it for generosity to others, or for self-indulgent purchases? Would our health or financial security make us think that we were in charge of our destiny, and we’d lose our desperate dependence upon God? God desires our souls to be cured of the disease of selfishness, sin, egoism, addictions…and suffering is often His bitter, but effective, medicine.

            But why? Because we live in a broken world – due to Original Sin, that brokenness that has been passed down from generation to generation. We intuit that there is something wrong with the universe and that we were made for more than this! But despite this mess, God is bringing something beautiful out of it: to make us like Christ. When we endure suffering with patience and joy, we are made more like Christ. When we feed the hungry and shelter the homeless, we are made more like Christ. When we struggle against our own sinful temptations, we are made more like Christ. When we trust God despite our struggles at work, we are made more like Christ. When we are lonely but use that as an opportunity to develop a friendship with God, we are made more like Christ. Every brokenness, illness, loneliness, fear, setback, disappointment, insult, or death can be an opportunity to become more like Christ – even if our problems don’t go away, our souls are made holy through grace.

            A perfect example of this is St. Dymphna, the patron saint of those with mental illness. Dymphna was the daughter of King Damon of Ireland in the 7^th Century. Damon was a loving Christian man, but when his wife died, he began to be so overwhelmed with grief that he started to lose his mind. In his insane grief, he decided to kill his daughter because she reminded him so much of his lost wife. Dymphna, hearing of this, decided to flee the country, so she sailed to Belgium where she settled in a small town called Geel (no relation to me!). Being a princess, she was fabulously wealthy, so once in her new country she founded the first-ever hospital for those with mental illness, in honor of her beloved father who struggled with it. So many people flocked to this hospital that even the townspeople had to welcome patients into their homes – which became a tradition even to this day! Even now, hundreds upon hundreds of people with severe mental illness live with families in the Belgian town of Geel, where they are treated with charity and respect as one of the family, and given the opportunity to live normal and healthy lives. From Dymphna’s mother’s tragic death and her father’s mental illness and her own exile to a new land, God has brought great good to the world…and made her a saint!

            Our readings today feature two great miracles – a physical healing, but more than that, the cure of a soul. When we experience the blessings of this world, they are meant to lead to our holiness as we experience the goodness of God and a foretaste of Heaven. But when we instead encounter suffering, this too is a blessing from God, for it helps us become like Christ and reminds us that we were made for a better world: Heaven!