6th Sunday B, February 12, 2012

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, B

You cannot be healed if you don’t know you are sick.

A person cannot receive healing from Jesus unless they know they are in need of healing. That’s the way it was for the leper in our gospel and that is how it is for all of us. We have to know we are sick in order to seek to be healed.

Two years ago I was called to the home of a family who had just come home from the hospital with a new baby. The baby had a terrible congenital anomaly, and was not expected to live. The family was sent home, after much explanation and counseling, with only one medication, morphine, for the great pain which this infant girl was suffering due to the severe deformation of her head.

When I got to the home to baptize the tiny girl Mary, I found out that she has already lost more than one-third of her body weight in the ten days of her life, and that she was dying and in great pain. I was heartsick to see this. What made me ever sadder was the realization that the parents were in denial about the condition of their newborn baby. They could not believe that little Mary was dying, that the baby was in great pain and that the morphine would help the baby to relax and get nourishment. So the parents were not giving the baby the pain medicine and were not seeking any further help for the dying baby. The parents did not know that they needed help; they accepted their condition. Unlike the leper in our gospel story, they were unable to come to Jesus or anyone else to seek healing.

I left that home and got to my car before I broke down in tears. It grieved me so to see someone in great need, yet be unable to seek help because they do not know that help is possible. Sort of like a leper who does not seek to be healed because he does not know it is possible. Sort of like a sinner who does not seek to be healed because he does not know it is possible.

There are so many people like baby Mary’s family – people who need help, people who are sick in body or spirit, people who do not seek help because they either do not know they are sick, or because they do not believe that healing is possible.

There is the drug addict who has sunk so low he does not think he can quit, or is too embarrassed to ask for help. There is, likewise, the alcoholic who thinks she can handle it and does not need to seek assistance, and so remains alcoholic. There is the battered spouse who does not know that life can be better, who puts up with a terrible life simply because she does not know that it is not normal, or that there are alternatives to such pain. In my profession as a priest, I see all too many people who are "lepers" and accept their leprosy as their state in life. Mostly, it is not the physically ill or chemically dependent whom I meet and are in need of healing. It is the sinner who does not believe his sins are hurting him and so does not seek healing of spirit. Living a life in sin is no different from living a life with leprosy; both can be cured and life can be so much happier. And not just earthly life either! How I pray that they might imitate the leper of our gospel story.

Jesus came to heal lepers of all sorts. We hear in our gospel today about one more leper who came to Jesus for healing. And Jesus gave it, just as Jesus wants to give healing to anyone who comes to him. But a person who needs healing cannot come to Jesus until and unless he/she knows they are in need of healing and that they can be healed.

After I left baby Mary and her family, I stewed and fussed all the rest of the day and night. I came in on Monday morning with a vow that I would not let this baby die in pain. I had to do something to make the parents understand and appreciate little Mary’s condition. So I did what I could. With the aid of a wonderful pediatrician and several others in the parish, we got Mary and her family to the doctor, made them understand fully Mary’s condition, and then I helped them cry and grieve. But that was not all that happened to baby Mary. Once the parents knew she was sick, we could then seek healing for her. First, we went to Jesus, just like the leper of our gospel, and we asked for healing. Then we took Mary to another medical center where we knew some brave and talented doctors and surgeons. If Mary was to die, she was not going to die without a fight for life.

At age 17 days, Mary had major high-risk surgery to remove the severe deformity from her head. At age 18 days, Mary had a second major surgery. At age 20 days, Mary came home from the hospital with her parents, alive and doing quite well. No morphine for pain. No death sentence. A happy baby with a family and a future.

I went to see Mary and her family the first day they were back. It was day 21 of her life; she should have been dead by now. The deformed baby was no longer deformed. The "leper" had come to Jesus and was healed, because the family knew Jesus could heal. I left the house a second time and, once again, broke down in tears when I got to my car. But this time it was different; these were tears of great joy. These were the kind of tears one might shed when a sick person is cured, or when a sinner repents.

I am so glad that I found baby Mary and that her parents came to know the possibility of healing in Jesus Christ. How I wish I could help more people know that Jesus offers healing, not of body but of spirit!

How I wish I could shed more tears of joy over those who find healing in Jesus’ arms! But it is difficult. As I said at the onset of this homily, you cannot be healed if you don’t know you are sick.