removing the fountain of evil - immaculate conception 2015
How
do we define mercy? I have come upon
what I think is the most beautiful definition of mercy. What is mercy? When love encounters suffering, it becomes
mercy.
Many
times we only look at suffering as having no food, as sickness and physical
pains and ailments, or having difficulties and problems of every kind, from the
lack of financial resources to problems related to school, or having troubles
and full of stress that either leave us paralyzed to inaction or to the other
extreme of being restless and sleepless.
Yes these are sufferings. But
there is another suffering of which the mercy of God is primarily directed –
and this is what the immaculate conception demonstrates and what our gospel
communicates to us this evening.
In
our gospel Jesus cures the paralyzed man by saying, your sins are forgiven
you. Jesus did not say you are cured, he
did not say rise and walk, at least not in this first instance. Instead he said to the paralytic and to his
friends who sought his cure, your sins are forgiven you.
St.
John Chrysostom commented on this priority of Jesus saying, “Let us then remove the fountain of
evil, and the waters of sickness will cease to flow.”
The first year high school seminarians were
in a panic the other week because one of the faucets in the bath broke and
water was flooding the bathroom and there was danger that it would overflow and
flood the wooden floors of the dorms and destroy the ceiling of the auditorium
on the first floor. In their panic the
seminarians were busy scooping the water from the floor to prevent it from
overflowing. When their manongs came,
their elder brothers, one of them calmly went to the source of the flooding,
and plugged the faucet with something.
Only after the source of the water was plugged did they focus on the
next problem which was to drain the water from the floor. And in no time the problem was solved.
Address the source, fixed the fountain, fixed
the leak and only then can the waters of sickness cease to flow. This is what Jesus is communicating to us in
the gospel – sin is forgiven before the sickness can be cured. This is also what the immaculate conception
is telling us. Mary was immaculately
conceived, the leak was plugged, the source of the flooding was shut dry so
that the Son, Jesus who will take away the sins of the world will not himself
be touched by sin, so that finally in Jesus and only in Jesus sin has been put
to a halt.
In deciding to save humanity the first act of
God’s love was to address the source of all our sufferings – sin. God fixed the leak. This is what God did to Mary and this is also
what Jesus did to the paralytic. God’s
love met suffering and it became mercy.
Two lessons for now.
First.
Sometimes the problem can be very simple but when panic sets in we often
miss the obvious. Many of the world’s
suffering, if not all, is caused by sin.
Why do you think is there a problem of hunger and at the same time a
problem of obesity? Why is there a
problem of malnutrition caused by lack of food when there is also at the same
time a problem on too much sugar, too much cholesterol, too much uric, too much
acid – food related diseases not a lack but too much? Hunger in the world is not a lack of
food. It is rather caused by the unequal
distribution of food. It can be caused
by selfishness and the lack of generosity, it can be caused by a lack of
control, an eating disorder, or it can be caused by the insensitivity of a
throw-away mentality. It can even be
ignorance and dependency. But it should
never be blamed to lack of food. Remove
the fountain of evil and the waters of hunger and famine will cease to flow.
Second.
Since this is the feast of St. Ambrose allow me to borrow a quotation
from the saint who explained our gospel today by saying, Mighty is the Lord who
pardons one man for the good deed of another.
Jesus he explained was led to pardon the sins of the paralytic and
therefore heal him of his paralysis because of the intercession of his friends,
because of the good deed of his companions who brought him to Jesus through the
roof. And so Ambrose continued, “If you
despair of the pardon of heavy sins, bring the prayers of others, bring the
Church to pray for you, and at sight of this the Lord may pardon what man
denies to you.”
Isn’t this what Mary does for us? Is this not how the saints help us in this
life? We are like the paralytic and
because of the intercession and intervention of Mary and the saints, Jesus
pardons us and heals us because of “the good deed of another.”
The good deed of another can bring mercy to
others. The good deed you do now can do
tremendous good to people everywhere.
This is the power of a good deed.
In all its technical details and descriptions
this is what we actually mean by gaining indulgences especially in this holy
year. The good that others do benefits
us, the good that we do benefits others.
Be aware of that even if you are just washing clothes in the laundry or
cleaning the dishes in the kitchen because the good that you do can bring mercy
and grace to others.
Think about that.
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