Jesus said in today’s gospel that:
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.”
I gave a little chuckle when I read these words, because coincidentally, I’m home from work today because I am sick! What a coincidence! I’m typing this reflection propped up in bed, typing on my laptop right now, drinking hot tea. It’s a rare luxury to be able to actually take time off to rest when I’m sick.
I’m still shaking my head at the coincidence in the readings today. Someone told me one time that there’s no such thing as a coincidence, and I think that is true too. A lot of folks call this phenomena, synchronicity. However, coincidences are often a sign for me that I’m on the right track, I’m right where the Lord wants me to be, doing exactly the things that he wants me to be doing at that particular moment in time.
I can also relate to the Gospel today, because I’ve very much felt like a sinner during the past week and undeserving to serve the Lord. I thoughtlessly missed Mass when our family went on vacation. My mind was full of our plans while we were traveling, but evidently my “plans” didn’t include God, because I did not have the foresight to plan where to go for Mass on Sunday morning. The guilt I felt on Sunday morning after we woke up late, lingered all week. I did not receive communion until I went to confession, and I really felt terrible about it.
I’m the ministry coordinator for a maximum security men’s prison near my home. The volunteers and inmates alike look up to me as their leader and role model, and during the past week I haven’t felt like I deserve their respect because of my sin. My face flushed with shame and a guilty look when I had to cross my arms at Mass at communion time, because I did not want to receive the Lord unworthily.
I thought about my penance for a week. What would help me heal from this grave sin that I committed? I needed something more than just to be told to pray a rosary for a penance. I needed to do some sort of reparation and I desperately needed spiritual healing. With prayerful discernment I realized that I wanted to adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament for an hour as an act of reparation for forgetting about him on that Sunday morning during our vacation. I wondered if it was possible to ask the priest for this penance, instead of him just giving me a rosary to pray.
Imagine my surprise when the priest asked me what I thought my penance should be! I just about had a heart attack. What a coincidence! I asked him if I could pray and adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament for an hour…
It was like drinking cold water when you are dying of thirst on a hot summer day or taking a deep breath of fresh clean air, when I went to adoration. I forced my mind to empty itself of everything and everyone that was not Jesus.
I poured out my heart to Jesus about how busy my life is, how difficult it is to get everything done in a day. I wanted to serve him, by serving the men in the prison, but I also had more responsibilities at work in my new job, with my family, and settling into our new home. My mind was too full and details were beginning to fall through the cracks, like forgetting to plan for Mass on our vacation.
I finally went home at peace.
Coincidentally, I came down with the stomach flu during the night and had to miss work Monday morning. Then, when I went to work today, my boss sent me home because she didn’t want to catch what I have.
My time has been put to good use. I’ve actually had time to pray more, and get caught up on some minor things at home, like mending clothes, paying bills, and answering emails.
It’s wonderful to have time to make hot chicken soup, drink hot tea and pet our soft kitty. The little chores that I was falling behind on doesn’t seem so intimidating anymore. My roses are in bloom and the sunlight is streaming through my window. Peace and spiritual healing has permeated my day. Through an unexpected gift of grace from Jesus Christ, I feel healed and whole again.
Jesus came to heal the sick and that includes us. He is our Master Physician and can heal what ails us, in mind, body or Spirit, just like He did for Levi the tax collector in today’s gospel. If you have not already done so, I hope that you will seek His face and encounter Him in the sacraments, and come to know the peace that comes from Jesus, that the world can not give.
