REFLECTIONS ON THE HEALING OF A LEPER (Mk 1: 40-45) X
We have been speaking over the past few days of the mission of Christ and of the Church. The Lord goes from village to village, from person to person, announcing the salvation that he brings, the salvation that is he himself, God made man. In order to welcome the gift of grace that saves us, we must open our lives to Jesus Christ and that, in Christian life, has a name: conversion.
We have said that Christ wanted to associate his Body, which is the Church, in that saving mission. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you." (Jn 20:21) This is a vast topic, on which we could dwell for years, but which we can only briefly outline here. If we had to summarize in two words Jesus’ ministry in these missionary trips, we could say: preach and heal. The gospel texts illustrating this are many, and it would be too much to approach each of them here. (for example: Mt 4:23; 9:35; Mk 1:39; Lk 4:15, 40, 43-44; 6:6; 7:21; 8:21; Jn 18:20; Acts 10:38).
However, I would like to point out that in these two dimensions of Jesus' ministry we also find the two fundamental aspects through which the Church continues the work of the Risen Lord throughout history. I am referring to the Word of God and the Sacraments. They are two essential aspects in the life of the People of God: listening to the divine Word and celebrating the mysteries through which God himself is present. Word and Sacraments have their origin in the very humanity of the Son of God and in the way in which He developed the ministry of his public life.
Let us not see these two aspects as separate realities: in Jesus, as we have said, his message is himself, his works speak and his words are effective. The same happens in the sacramental action of the Church, in which the sensory, material signs are made effective by the action of the word. At the same time, in the Liturgy of the Church, the Word of God always occupies a pre-eminent place since this is how the Bride of Christ has learned it, from the life of her Lord.
In this sense, it is relatively easy to establish a relationship between the preaching of Jesus in the synagogues during his public life and the proclamation of the Word of God in the life and liturgy of the Church. But why do we say that the Lord's cures evoke the mystery of the sacramentality of the Church?
This will be the question to which we will dedicate, very briefly, the next reflections. What we can emphasize here is the following: the right of the baptized to receive the other sacraments is based on the salvific Will of God who wants all men to be saved, (1Tim 2:4) in the very practice of Jesus Christ, and in the fact that both the Word of God and these same sacraments are, for believers, necessary for salvation. This is Catholic doctrine as stated by the Council of Trent in response to Luther's Protestant theology. For example, we can read in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “For believers in Christ the sacraments, even if they are not all given to each of the faithful, are necessary for salvation because they confer sacramental grace, forgiveness of sins, adoption as children of God, conformation to Christ the Lord and membership in the Church. The Holy Spirit heals and transforms those who receive the sacraments.” (Compendium 230)
From this, we can understand the gravity of the current situation. When the faithful ask to receive the sacraments, what they are really asking for is the grace of holiness and the salvation of their souls! Can the Church deny them that salvation?
The answer is an obvious “no”. The Church has received from God authority over certain aspects of sacramental life, but the most essential features, those that have their origin in Jesus Christ himself, and that are, as it is usually expressed in Canon Law, "of divine Law", cannot be modified.
We will look at everything step by step, but meanwhile, we ask God that the current situation will end very soon so that the faithful can freely receive the grace of active participation in the Holy Mass again. May the Lord grant healing to the sick and eternal life for all.
God bless you.>
