Isaiah 35:4-7a / Psalm 146 / James 2:1-5 / Mark 7:31-37

A central theme of today's readings is healing. I used to think that healings were something that only happened in the time of Jesus but stopped with the Apostles. But in the last four years I have seen lots of healings and I am now a big proponent of healing ministry in our Church. 

I know this healing ministry isn’t anything new to you, in fact I have been (here) in Bellevue for two healing missions, the most recent one I spoke at, and I have seen a lot of healings here and throughout the Archdiocese.  

The healings that we see always point to God’s presence here.  Jesus came and healed so many people, and it signaled that God had returned to save and heal His people, like had been prophesied for so long, the Kingdom of God was at hand.  

As I spoke about (here) in Bellevue last year, this is one of the main reasons I love healing ministry is because it shows so clearly how God is still present, that the Kingdom of God is here. With healing and these readings, there are so many things I could preach about, so I was praying about what I should preach about.  

So yesterday, during Mass, I was in the middle of Eucharistic Prayer II, I prayed this line “At the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his Passion,” and I was reminded of a time, about six years ago, when I was betrayed by someone I considered one of my best friends.  I was in the right, and he hurt me for it.

And even though he has since apologized, and I have tried to forgive him many times, it still hurts, and I could feel it in that moment in the Mass, which I felt was my sign to talk about the role of forgiveness in healing.  I mean everyone wants to see the physical healings, but inner healings are more important, more frequent, and often lead to physical healings, so I want to focus on forgiveness today.

Out of everything that we do in healing ministry, forgiveness seems to be the most important.  People hurt us in so many different ways, through betrayal, through selfishness, through being inconsiderate, people hurt us, and God calls us to forgive them.

We know we are hurt because we are angry, frustrated, impatient, resentful or any number of feelings that come up in relation to a person or a situation.  I heard confessions for 2 ½ hours today/yesterday up in Dubuque, and whenever someone expressed a feeling like that, I went after the unforgiveness piece, because, well, it is just so common.

Here is the thing, Jesus put a huge emphasis on forgiveness during His ministry.  He preached about it multiple times, and then, when He was suffering His passion from the cross He even asked God to forgive those who had crucified Him saying, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

Jesus was innocent, we are often innocent too, but people hurt us and we must forgive.  Jesus gave us the Our Father which we pray at every Mass - I know I pray it at least three times a day, usually more - but in that prayer we pray, “Forgive us our tresspasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

“As we forgive” - that is a conditional statement.  We go to God asking for mercy, and He is happy to forgive as much as we forgive others.  So we must forgive in order to be fully forgiven by God. 

It’s not always that easy though, is it?  So I tell people, if you can’t forgive fully, forgive 1%, say “Jesus, I forgive so-and-so 1%” - you will get there eventually.

And the other really critical piece of forgiveness is that we forgive ourselves.  We are often the hardest on ourselves, and even though we have asked God for forgiveness for what we have done, we are unwilling, seemingly unable, to forgive ourselves.

Listen, we are included in that group “who trespass against us.” We trespass against ourselves, we hurt ourselves, and we must forgive ourselves too saying, “Jesus, I forgive myself.”

Using the Church's tradition of imaginative prayer, when I put myself in the place of the man in today's Gospel, “a deaf man who had a speech impediment.”  If you were him, how would you feel?  I feel like I’d be really mad at God, this would have been a hard way to live, and he has dealt with it from birth.

Maybe he had unforgiveness in his heart for God, but then seeing Jesus, God with us, maybe He realized he hadn’t been abandoned by God, he hadn’t been forsaken, and in that moment, he was able to forgive.

I don’t know, we can’t know, but what I do know is that we are often quick to blame God for things that go wrong in our lives, and slow to thank Him when things go great. We need to forgive God for the times we felt He wasn’t there, we also have to forgive ourselves for that kind of thinking that blames Him when it isn’t His fault.

I know this might sound simple, but it is so important, this inner healing piece of forgiveness is critical.  When I was able to forgive my friend for betraying me, my neck and my back stopped hurting, so sometimes it brings physical healing, but the inner healing is more valuable.

God is present, Jesus is present in the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit lives within each of us and is stirring our hearts.  God wants us to be healed from all of the hurt that we have gone through in our lives.  

Forgiveness is a supernatural thing, really, it doesn’t make sense from a purely natural point of view, but, from God’s perspective, and with His help, we can forgive and we can find healing for ourselves while being a great witness to God’s love in the world.