Scripture: Lectionary 329, Feb.6/12: I Kings 8:1-7.9-13. Psalm 132:6-7.8-10. Mark 6:53-56:

“All who touched him were healed.” (Mark 6:56). Jesus not only preaches the Good News of the kingdom among us, he also heals and saves (it is the same word in the original Greek from the verbsoterein; the noun is Soter or Savior). All types of cures and even exorcisms are included in this healing power of Jesus. Perhaps, the demon of addictions of all sorts is what needs healing the most these days.  No matter what our person ills and suffering are, Jesus, our Savior is the one who can heal them.  We are among those who are included in this passage of Mark. God’s word is alive and active among us each time we pray the Scriptures and celebrate them in our liturgical and worship services.  We listen to the living voice of Jesus when we gather in his name—even with just two or three others!

We all need to experience the healing touch of Jesus. We “reach out and touch someone” and that someone is Jesus, the wounded healer. He pays more attention to our wounds than to his.

In our liturgy of word and sacrament we have the real presence of the Lord in the midst of the believing community.  God’s word is alive and active. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.” (Hebrews 4:12). That word cuts through our sins and faults and heals us, restores us to the Christ life within us through our baptism.

Like Jesus we are to take time to rest and be apart for some solitude with God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to prepare ourselves for listening to that word of God proclaimed especially on the Lord’ day, Sunday, but also during the  weekdays when we gather to pray or to celebrate a sacrament. Our attentiveness to the word of God leads us to experience the healing touch of Jesus who lives among us in word and sacrament.

In our personal or collective study of the Scriptures we enter into the soul of sacred liturgical theology and are led to celebrate this in the Eucharist.  By this lectio divina or divine spiritual reading of the Bible we guard against individualism and excessive piety. The word of God in the Gospels is Jesus who is our light, our salvation, our life, and our truth. Amen.

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