The Witness of Jesus

“When Jesus is confronted with concrete human suffering, he does not stay with the question “Why suffering?” but moves to heal the afflicted. In today’s Gospel people are crowding around the door bringing with them the legion of the infirmed and the broken. No doubt each of them has questions about the why of suffering, but all of them share the same hope that Jesus will care for them. Their hope is not misplaced; Jesus attends to their plight and heals them. Early the next morning he seeks but a lonely place and prays there, but the apostolic search party finds him to tell him that everyone is looking for him. Once the word is out about Jesus, every anxious Job in town emerges with hurt showing. Jesus has an emergency ward on his hands. And he knows that it will be no different in the next town. So he faces the sick with the love of God. That is why he has come.

“The questions of the suffering Job are not answered in the Gospel. Jesus may have his own questions about the endless suffering that surrounds him, as he will have his own questions when his own suffering becomes passion. But whatever his questions are, Jesus stays committed to caring for the sick. That is his witness. And that must be the enduring witness of his followers.

“Through the witness of Jesus we hold fast to the truth that God loves us in our weakness and fragility, in our sickness and suffering. We can see a reflection of God’s care in the commitment of doctors, nurses, healers, hospital chaplains, and all the people who tend to the suffering of others. They are God’s compassion in flesh, God’s care in motion. No doubt all of them have reason to wonder, to protest, to be angry when they see the innocent suffer. But they carry on. That is their enduring witness. Like Jesus, they know that the schedule of care must be kept.” (Seasons of the Word: Denis McBride)

Prayer

In the Gospel today, we are told that Jesus took time out for prayer. Jesus prayed before all his major decisions. In spite of all the needs of the sick and the poor he took time to be alone with God. We, too, in spite of all the good that we do must do like Jesus – take time to be alone with God, as Henry Nouwen wrote in his book Compassion: “Our prayer is in many ways the criterion of Christian life.” Prayer requires that we stand in God’s presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. This is difficult in a climate where the predominant counsel is: “Do your best and God will do the rest.” When our life is divided into ‘our best’ and ‘God’s rest’, we have turned prayer into a last resort to be used only when all our other resources are depleted. Even then the Lord has become the victim of our impatience.

Discipleship does not mean to use God when we no longer function ourselves. On the contrary, it means to recognize that we can do nothing at all, but that God can do everything through us. As disciples we find not some, but all our strength, hope courage and confidence in God. Therefore, prayer must be our first concern.