Sacrament, Not Magic
We continue this week with the healing ministry of Jesus, but with Mark’s focus on Jesus not as a wonder-worker, but on Jesus the preacher of the Good News. These last few Sunday’s we have seen the miraculous healing power of Jesus as the Christ as an extension of himself as the Word of God, spoken to humanity and proclaiming the Kingdom. We have also seen Jesus admonish those he has healed to keep the secret that he is the long-awaited Messiah; so how do today’s readings complement and further our understanding of Jesus’ ministry and mission?
The passage from Leviticus provides a background for Jesus sending the leper to the Chief Priest to attest to being healed and declared ritually pure and fit for worship.
What is fascinating is how blatantly Jesus’ command to tell no one is disobeyed. Mark’s emphasis on the element of secrecy suggests that there is a time when the conditions would make this revelation understandable. Healing may be a sign of the Kingdom, but the one, final act of healing of Jesus’ victory over death that heals the entire world has yet to take place, so there is a concern that people will not fully grasp that their healing is more than a personal triumph over disease, by a skilled physician/wonder worker, it is a preview of the eternal healing of God’s sacrifice of Himself.
This universal act of salvation is what we partake of through the sacraments. The sacraments that have a healing dimension are the Anointing of the Sick, Eucharist, and Reconciliation. Our healing, like the lepers, is God’s reaction to a suffering world. Jesus wasn’t a messenger, Jesus is God among us in history as a man in a particular place and a particular time, but God is also forever Spirit sent by Christ to continue animating the People of God in the Church. The sacraments, then, become the special places of contact where this grace is bestowed upon us. Sacraments are not magic; they are animated by the Church's faith of which we are a part. That is why people who have not been baptized do not receive the sacraments, not because they are being rejected from God's grace, but because the sacraments work off of a faith they have yet to experience. A desire for a sacrament, in and of itself, always points first towards baptism. In extreme cases, baptism followed by the Sacrament of the Sick is a great grace and the person's faith is strengthened by the faith of the Church to which they now belong.
If the sacrament was really a magical incantation, no faith would be required. The Body of Christ, the Church, into which we are baptized, becomes our great source of strength when our individual faith waxes and wanes as it does in the course of our spiritual journey. We can approach God and the sacraments that the faith of the Church and the Spirit which animates our community will always provide the supplement to my faith when it is weak.
The leper in today’s story approaches Jesus with the words “If you wish, you can make me clean”. Christ’s will is exemplified in the ways God touches us and offers healing as part of the Body of Christ in the sacraments. Today’s Anointing of the Sick becomes our response to our need of healing in body and soul, and the power of God’s love through the community of the Church announces “It is my will. Be healed".
No comments:
Post a Comment