This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
The entire history of salvation consists in God’s action to undo, with the most delicate respect for man’s freedom, the damage that man has done to himself through sin.
In today’s readings, we see God reversing physical maladies introduced into the world with original sin: infertility in the case of Sarah in the first reading, and leprosy in the gospel.
And the joy this brings is represented in the psalm: “See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.”
But in the end, all of this presages and culminates in Jesus’ act to reverse the greatest damage of all done by sin: the inability of the human being to enter into a relationship of loving intimacy with God the Father.
It may frustrate us sometimes that so many maladies still exist in the world; that with His coming, Jesus did not reverse them all at once. But the fact that He did not perform a complete overhaul of this sort with His coming reflects His respect for our original, fundamental choice.
He did, however, completely overturn the limitation of our freedom to choose good, in particular the ultimate good of a relationship with God, that we had imposed upon ourselves with original sin. He threw the door to God back open for us. And while we cannot avoid every suffering that comes to us from this broken world, with His help we can thoroughly and completely choose to enter into that relationship, with all the interior light and joy that this brings–to the point that our sufferings begin to take on a very relative importance.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus that you trust in God’s providential plan for the world and for you, and that you trust the approach to salvation that He has chosen. Ask Him to fill you to bursting with all the fruits of His redemption.
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