Wednesday of the
First Week in Ordinary Time
(Hebrews 2:14-18; Mark 1:29-39)
The world needs healers.
People are wounded from the battlefield of life. Pope Francis famously said that he envisions
the Church as a field hospital taking care of life’s victims. Yet Jesus in today’s gospel resists the call
to become solely a physician.
Having the power to heal the sick, Jesus may find a permanent
practice in any town. But that is not
his deepest calling. First and foremost,
he is commissioned to preach good news to the poor. So he moves on to share the good news of the
Father’s love with the whole world.
We have similar vocations. Taking up Jesus’ call to spread the Gospel, parents
will raise their children in both faith and love. Indeed, all workers will discern in their
labor ways that to extend God’s love in the world. Doing so, we become—again like Jesus -- healers
of the soul if not of the body.
