Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We can see in the gospel the main mission of Jesus Christ which is to preach and to cast out demons. This is his main work as the Messiah. He preaches whenever he goes to a synagogue and all over Galilee, he casts out demons. He is still in the town of Capernaum at the house of Peter and Andrew.
He sees that Peter’s mother-in-law is sick with a fever. This healing of Peter’s mother-in-law is not just any healing. If you look at the details as told by Mark, he mentions she has a fever, which is when the body is burning up with a temperature. If the temperature keeps rising there comes a point where the person can die. A temperature of 104/105 is already too high and in the old days the only way to lower it was to put the person in a cold bath. It would be a very strong shock; it lowers the temperature but is very risky. A very high fever is hell. To have this kind of temperature is a big suffering; it’s hell. This healing is what the Lord wants to do with all of us. He wants to cure us from the hell that we are living in.
Hell has always been painted as a fire where people are suffering among the flames. However, hell is to be alone. Hell is the deepest loneliness in the world and the absolutely selfish man is the one who lives in complete hell like this woman who was alone in her bed perhaps dying of a high fever. She could not move, nor could she serve, nor even get up to greet Jesus Christ. Imagine if you have the Messiah come to your home and you cannot serve him.
How often Jesus comes to our house, and we cannot move, we are paralyzed. When does he comes to our house, he comes when ‘the other’ comes. How many times Jesus comes in the poor who asks for something? How often Jesus comes to our homes when we are hosting a group? How many times does Jesus come in the person of your spouse or of your kids? Jesus is there but often we are paralyzed by a fever, by our own concerns. This is living in hell, living for ourselves, in our comfort, in our own little world, in our own things. Yes, we want to serve him but…Christ who loves us so much is coming to cure us, to help us on the day you least expect it, and he will lift you up and say I was told about you. Like the apostles told Jesus about this Peter’s mother-in-law. They told him about her, the gospel says.
This is very important because there are people who are praying for you. They are talking to Jesus about you, which means they are praying for you. They spoke to Jesus about her, and he takes her by the hand and lifts her up. The original word in Greek is the same word describing the resurrection. He was lifted up; he rose. Christ rose from the dead. To be raised up from the dead is the same verb that is used here.
This is the work of Jesus Christ to preach, to cast out demons, to raise us up. He descended into hell, into the hell of this woman, into her fever and raised her up. Do you have a fever today? Are you lying prostrate in a bed, unable to love the other as they are? Are you unable to serve, unable to forgive because you have a fever? Ask the Lord to come to your life and hopefully someone will speak to the Lord of you, praying for you and he will help you.
How good it is to pray for one another. A Christian does not pray too much for himself. A Christian prays for the others. Lord, I need you to do this miracle for so-and-so. But many times, we are asking only for ourselves. Lord, help me with this, do this thing for me, always for me, for me, for me. So, you still have a fever, thinking only of yourself even in prayer, only your things. A Christian sees the other when he/she prays; he speaks to Jesus about the other. Lord, for my spouse, help him, for the world, for those who are hungry, for those who are alone. I ask you for my sister-in-law and her kids, for my mother-in-law, for all who are in need. Don’t ask for yourselves, ask for others, always for the others.
Now our Lord will have someone who will ask for you. There is always someone who asks for us, brothers and sisters. This is so important because prayer puts us in front of Jesus. Did you notice in the gospel how Jesus gets up early and went off to pray. He cured many people and drove out demons and, in the morning, before dawn, he went to a deserted place and prayed.
The disciples went off looking for him. We are famous, let’s go hear the applause and collect the money and Jesus says let’s go to another place; come on, let’s go; what’s wrong with you guys! We see the humility of Christ because he knows his mission is the cross which he is already starting to live when he preaches and cures. He cures not because he feels sorry for the people who are sick; he cures to show the love of God for these people. We pray that the Lord will cast out our demons also; the demon to think that we are good. We are more possessed at times than the kid in the exorcist movie.
Today we can ask, Lord, take these demons from me; set me free. It was not George Washington who won us freedom, who took you out of adultery or something else. We need a true liberator to free me from my selfishness, from my pride, from my lust so that I can be free and can love and be at peace. Christ is the only one who can do that. This is his mission, and it is what the Lord wants to do with us, and we are called upon also to do for others.