Search Web Site
Featured Photos
Click photos to enlarge
Click here for information on the Knights of Columbus Charity Golf Tournament held on Saturday, June 15, 2024.
Another miracle. Seems like that is all we have in Mark’s Gospel. His Gospel starts with the cure of a man in the synagogue who is possessed by a demon. Then Jesus goes to Peter’s mother-in-law who is ill with a fever. He takes her by the hand and heals her. Next a leper approaches and Jesus stretches out his hand and he is healed. All of that just in chapter 1! By the time we get to today’s reading 10 miracles have taken place. But when we look at them we see that the miracles in Mark are different than the ones we read about in the other Gospels in one very important way. Almost all of Mark’s miracle stories involve Jesus touching someone. In the other Gospels Jesus tends to cure just through his word, simply by saying, “Be cured.”
Mark’s Jesus is very personal, intimate, even emotional. Mark wants to show that at the heart of Jesus’miracles is compassion. Compassion is why he heals. And more than anything else, compassion involves touch, a physical presence and nearness to the one suffering. Compassion is very different from pity. We have all heard the expression, “you have to pity them”or “isn’t that pitiful.” Pity can be very distant, you don’t have to get your hands dirty when you pity someone, just look at them and shake your head. Compassion on the other hand is a response to the suffering of others that motivates a desire to help, to do something. Compassion involves action.
Compassion is not as natural a response as pity or sorrow. When we see the pictures of thousands of refugees in Hungary walking to Germany, when we see the dead body of a 4 year old boy on the sand, an innocent victim fleeing persecution in Syria, we tend to say, “That’s terrible, someone has to do something.” We are sad; we pity their suffering. But even though we are physically far away, when we decide to send a check to Catholic Relief Services or another organization, when we decide to do something, we have moved from pity to compassion. Sometimes I think we learn compassion when someone is compassionate towards us. When a child, a spouse, a parent is sick or even dying and someone comes over to just sit with us, or calls us , or brings a meal to us to let us know they care, we learn what compassion is.
Over and over again we read in Mark’s miracles that Jesus touches, reaches out, to the sick, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, and the deaf. Today he puts his fingers in the man’s ears, touches his tongue, and he hears and speaks. Touch is one of our most powerful human expressions. Touch says “I love you, I care, I am here for you, I will be with you.” We know that. At a funeral we never know what to say, but we can touch, hold, hug someone that is grieving and that says more than words. That is compassion, and it can heal.
Think about our sacraments. Each one is an encounter with God and each one involves touch. At Baptism with our hands we pour water over the baby, take Sacred Chrism and rub it on the child’s head. In Confirmation oil is smeared on the forehead. Anointing of the sick, Holy Orders, Marriage, all involve touch, holding hands. And when we walk up here at Communion the Host is placed in our hands. God touches us and we are healed. What a miracle, what compassion.
To be like God we have to have compassion. We have to have our eyes opened to see the suffering around us. We have to have our ears opened to hear the cry of the poor. We have to have our tongue loosened to speak out for the least fortunate among us. We can heal if we just reach out to others that are hurting. Reach out with a touch, a word, a smile, a telephone call. Ephphatha, be opened!
Mark’s Jesus is very personal, intimate, even emotional. Mark wants to show that at the heart of Jesus’miracles is compassion. Compassion is why he heals. And more than anything else, compassion involves touch, a physical presence and nearness to the one suffering. Compassion is very different from pity. We have all heard the expression, “you have to pity them”or “isn’t that pitiful.” Pity can be very distant, you don’t have to get your hands dirty when you pity someone, just look at them and shake your head. Compassion on the other hand is a response to the suffering of others that motivates a desire to help, to do something. Compassion involves action.
Compassion is not as natural a response as pity or sorrow. When we see the pictures of thousands of refugees in Hungary walking to Germany, when we see the dead body of a 4 year old boy on the sand, an innocent victim fleeing persecution in Syria, we tend to say, “That’s terrible, someone has to do something.” We are sad; we pity their suffering. But even though we are physically far away, when we decide to send a check to Catholic Relief Services or another organization, when we decide to do something, we have moved from pity to compassion. Sometimes I think we learn compassion when someone is compassionate towards us. When a child, a spouse, a parent is sick or even dying and someone comes over to just sit with us, or calls us , or brings a meal to us to let us know they care, we learn what compassion is.
Over and over again we read in Mark’s miracles that Jesus touches, reaches out, to the sick, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, and the deaf. Today he puts his fingers in the man’s ears, touches his tongue, and he hears and speaks. Touch is one of our most powerful human expressions. Touch says “I love you, I care, I am here for you, I will be with you.” We know that. At a funeral we never know what to say, but we can touch, hold, hug someone that is grieving and that says more than words. That is compassion, and it can heal.
Think about our sacraments. Each one is an encounter with God and each one involves touch. At Baptism with our hands we pour water over the baby, take Sacred Chrism and rub it on the child’s head. In Confirmation oil is smeared on the forehead. Anointing of the sick, Holy Orders, Marriage, all involve touch, holding hands. And when we walk up here at Communion the Host is placed in our hands. God touches us and we are healed. What a miracle, what compassion.
To be like God we have to have compassion. We have to have our eyes opened to see the suffering around us. We have to have our ears opened to hear the cry of the poor. We have to have our tongue loosened to speak out for the least fortunate among us. We can heal if we just reach out to others that are hurting. Reach out with a touch, a word, a smile, a telephone call. Ephphatha, be opened!