"Keep the Focus on Jesus" by Colleen O'Sullivan

"Keep the Focus on Jesus" by Colleen O'Sullivan

Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

James Tissot (1836-1902), The Healing of Peter’s Mother-in-law,
Brooklyn Museum, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

While there is jealousy and rivalry among you, are you not of the flesh, and walking according to the manner of man?  Whenever someone says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely men?  What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul?  Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned each one.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:3b-7)

After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon.  Simon's mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her.  He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.  At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him.  He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.   At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. (Luke 4:38-39a, 40, 42a)

Piety

Lord, help us to keep our focus on You and what You desire of us, your Church, in these troubled days. 

Study

Paul writes to the church in Corinth and tells them the truth about themselves.  They are not mature in their faith.  Paul tells them that the very existence of rival factions within the Corinthian church is proof of this.  Some people claim to be followers of Apollos and others say they are followers of Paul himself.  You’ve got it all wrong, the apostle writes.  The only One to follow is Jesus Christ himself.  The Lord may have helpers, one to plant the church, the other to nurture it, but there is only one Lord, in whose name they should be united.

I wish Paul were here today to help us.  For days, I’ve been reading about and hearing people taking sides as to whether or not former-Cardinal McCarrick was under any type of sanctions.  Some are throwing their lot in with Archbishop Viganò, sure that his letter spells out the truth.  Others are defending Pope Francis and his no comment response to the letter.  I don’t see how any of us could really have an opinion at all. There is no solid information to be had.  Anyone can write a letter accusing anybody of anything.  Without supporting documentation, such a letter doesn’t tell us a whole lot.  The silence of our Holy Father may be intended in and of itself to send a message, but what that message might be is open to speculation.  Silence is not information.

We are losing our focus, which, as the apostle Paul writes, is to be on God.  Jesus is the human face of God, so what do we see Jesus doing in the Gospel reading today?   After preaching in the synagogue, he goes directly to Peter’s home, where he discovers the disciple’s mother-in-law in bed with a high fever.  He goes to her bedside and heals her.  Then, once the Sabbath ends at sunset, the villagers bring many, many people suffering from a variety of ailments to Peter’s house and beg Jesus to heal them, too, which he does.  At dawn, the Lord goes to a deserted place where he can pray in silence.

Action

If we are trying to live Christ-like lives, we need to end the squabbling and stop taking sides in a matter where there is a real lack of information.   Jesus used his time to pray and to discern his Father’s will.  He expended his energy in healing the wounded and sick.  Please spend at least 15-20 minutes today praying for inner healing for all the victims of clerical sexual abuse, past, and present.  And pray that going forward we, Christ’s Church, may put in place processes that once and for all put an end to sweeping sexual abuse problems under the rug or passing abusers on to other places where they can find new victims.