23rd
Sunday after Pentecost 17.11.19 Freed from slavery
The woman is healed and the girl is raised. All easy work
for Our Lord!
We approach the end of the Church year, at which time we
contemplate especially the last things – Heaven, Hell, Death, Judgment. We
assess our readiness to meet the Lord.
He is the Judge but also the Advocate. He wants us to be
saved more than we want it ourselves.
Our Lord shows His power to heal at every level. He can cure
sickness; He can bring someone back to life.
The one that really matter is a third level of healing, that
of forgiveness of sin.
Forgiveness of sin restores us to life of grace, soul-life
This is better than just being healthy, or just being alive.
It goes to the very centre of our being, bringing us into union with Divine
life - a great source of joy when we reach that state.
The idea is that we be not just forgiven of sins but raised
to the point that we no longer have any inclination to sin; we are fully alive,
like the saints themselves, who dwell in perfect concord with Almighty God.
The way we think, the way we regard one thing as more
important than another – these can be set straight as for the sickness and
death Our Lord overpowered.
There is more to the spiritual healing because it involves
the will of the other person, and that will can be very hard to bend. Still it
can be done, as long as the person concerned shows some degree of cooperation.
We will have new desires, purer and stronger, well-ordered;
linked to the will of God. We will be free from all addictions, compulsions,
and bad habits. We control our desires; not they control us!
This is what we should ask for when we call out to the Lord
to heal us. We will gladly take any degree of healing or blessing, but the
recovery of our own soul is the big prize.
To realize that we need such a change; and to believe it is
possible to happen – Our Lord assures us that it is so.
When we cry, Lord have mercy, or any similar prayer, we are
asking for all this.
Many would regard their sins as too firmly lodged to be
movable. You can't change a leopard’s spots etc. Anyway everyone does what I
do, so I don’t need to be better than they are.
This is false captivity. We do not have to settle for that.
It may be a process, not all at once, but we can get there
eventually.
We cannot heal ourselves, or raise ourselves from the dead,
or absolve ourselves from sin.
It has to be an external power that can do these things, and
this power is from Christ; and we come to Him, asking Him to direct His
merciful gaze upon us and just one fraction of His infinite power and goodness
to revive us, and bring us back to life in the soul.
We ask Him to heal us in any way and any degree He chooses,
but at least we give Him full access and understanding that we must be prepared
to be His disciples if we are to ask His favours.
We can ask for freedom even if we feel bound. It may be
beyond our strength but not beyond Him.
The captives are set free. From sickness, from death, from
sin.
As we prepare for the end this freedom is what we seek. We
will have no fear of judgment if we have established a continuous relationship
with Our Lord, calling upon His healing.
And this we pray for each other, including the dead.
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