DAILY HOMILIES #healing

Hatred is deadly. The feeling of hatred makes you blind to the good in others. Hatred makes you criticize everything in everybody. Hatred takes away your happiness. The scribes and Pharisees could not rejoice at the healing of the man with a withered hand instead they started plotting to kill Jesus. Hatred literally turns us into little devils.

Each time we attend the Sacraments, do we hear Jesus asking us the question he asked the two blind men who were following him in Matthew 9:27-30; “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

Inflamed by the Holy Spirit, Jesus visited Simon’s house where he healed Simon’s mother in law and that same night, the whole community brought to Jesus their sick and possessed relatives. Jesus healed them all

Faith does not begin with the miracle, rather it attracts the miracle. Keep believing that things would get better, that something great is coming ahead of you, that no matter what you are facing right now, it will soon pass away.

In the midst of the panic, the disciples were surprised to see Jesus sleeping and the cushion, and when they woke Him, He not only spoke to the winds and the sea, He said to them: “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” In today’s Gospel passage, we hear something very similar from the lips of Jesus, this time, He addressed the synagogue official whose daughter was feared dead: “Do not fear, only believe.”

Unlike Abraham and Sarah who laughed at the thought of having a child in old age, the Centurion knew that there was nothing too hard for God to do. Do you believe that there is nothing too hard for God, that even that which troubles you right now is not difficult for God?

While the leper believed that God was capable of doing anything, Abraham fell on his face and laughed when God told him that his wife Sarai would have a child.

Above all the message of the book of Tobit is that God answers prayers. God cares for His children. God is not pleased with our tears, deprivation, injustice, and suffering. God is ready to go to any extent to save us. Whatever it is you are experiencing now, don’t give up on God. Continue to pray and one day, your miracle will happen.

Stop complaining and look out for the silver lining in your cloud. Start thanking God instead, start expecting better. The words of Jesus “ask and you will receive…” are still true. (Matthew 7:7)

We may claim to be Christians, we may even hold high positions in the Church but with falsehood still reigning in our lives, we are actually acting against Christ and scattering the flock of God’s kingdom.

Dear friends, do not make the mistake of the people of Nazareth. Be content with what is yours. Value your own. Value the Church, understand its sacraments. Deepen your faith.