God’s Ability to Heal

10-09-2016Homilies Deacon John C. Navaretta

Today's readings focus on God's ability to heal. In our first reading, we see God cleansing Naaman of leprosy. Because of this cleansing, Naaman comes to recognize the God of Abraham as the one true God and commits himself to God. In today's gospel, we see Jesus heal ten lepers, one of them returns to Jesus, to show him his thanks and devotion. So Jesus tells him "stand up and go, your faith has saved you". Then the psalm show us that God's healing power is not limited to physical ailments. God's healing power extends to his power to save us. Through God's actions, he makes salvation known to us and heals us by revealing to us, his justice, kindness and faithfulness. Our second reading speaks to us of his spiritual healing. As a living God his words and actions are not chained down; they are available to everyone. Timothy also tells us that if we persevere with Jesus, we will reign with him, and if we accept Jesus, but at times are unfaithful to him, he still remains faithful to us.

In today's world, humanity still finds itself in need of God's healing power. Throughout the world we see respect for human life declining. China sets policies to prevent the birth of children from special economic benefits for having one child to severe economic and physical punishments for having more than one child, including sterilization and female infanticide. Kenya has displaced the Massai people from their land along the river to build photo-safari parks, causing many hardships, including, spreading diseases and death due to unfit water. Then we have Muslims practicing Jihad found in the Koran which is the book that defines the Islamic practice of killing at will anyone who does not believe as they do. In America we have the reported killing of over fifty eight million infants since 1973 while they are still in their mother's womb. We can see that today, because of the lack of respect for human life, God's healing power is desperately needed throughout the world. The total lack of respect for human life, transcends any religious tradition. Because it is an attack on Natural Law. Natural law is a philosophy that tells us certain rights and values exist due to the basic virtue of humanity. Also that natural law can be universally understood simply through human reason to choose between good and evil, to help establish common standards concerning morality, ethics and moral behavior. The first and main tenant of natural law is the right to life. This right to life is also granted to everyone through God's gift of creation. Once we decide we share in the co-creation of a human life which starts at conception. This human life has the God given right to live according to nature from its conception to its natural death. Also we have one of God's Ten Commandments, "Thou shall not kill". This commandment is extremely cut and dry. God leaves no room for controversy.

In response to the decline of respect for human life, especially through legalized abortion, the Catholic church has made some proclamations: that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the person is the foundation of a moral vision for society, also that our belief in the sanctity of human life and the inherent dignity of the human person is the foundation of our social teaching; the compass that guides us in our interaction with others. If we have little or no respect for the live of a person, how can we have respect for any other aspect of a person. "We cannot".

Respect for life reaches beyond abortion. There are those who support euthanasia known as mercy killing, that decides when it is in someone's best interest to die. Also those who support capital punishment, again deciding who and when someone should die, rather than spending their life incarcerated. We have the right and the responsibility to remove someone from society, but not to take their life. Respect life also calls us to reach out to all people to uphold the dignity of their life. We need to insure that all people have the right to partake in and share the natural resources that God has gifted to us. We know that our country and the world are in difficult situations and that we are in desperate need of God's healing power. So how do we go about getting it? "Through Prayer": Our prayers are very powerful. We must trust that our spiritual life of prayer and self-denial can and will make an enormous difference in the world that we live in. Also our God is a God of miracles. We do not know how and when he will respond to the situations that humanity creates, but we know that God will respond to our prayers when we ask Him to stand up and take notice.

Our Christian roots teach us to condemn the sin not the sinner. When we do condemn the sinner, we are also condemning ourselves because we are all guilty of sin. With this in mind, what do we pray for when we pray for God's healing power concerning respect life? First we pray for those who have shown a great disrespect for human life. That they seek God's forgiveness and come to terms with their actions. Then we pray that God will enter the hearts of those who have shown a great disrespect for human life, to help them have a change of heart and come to respect the dignity of life. We also need to pray for our political leaders. That more and more of them from both parties will come to see the great injustice of our laws concerning respect life so our country can gain by-partisan support that defends humanities right to life. As we know God does not work alone. When he answers our prayers, he is constantly calling us to take action in whatever capacity that we can. This calls us to pray for ourselves and others, to listen to God when he calls us, to step up and take action, to help defend and promote respect life.

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