Wednesday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, September 6, 2023

Luke 4, 38-44

After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her. He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them.  At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them. And demons also came out from many, shouting, “You are the Son of God.” But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.  At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

“After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon.”  The events in the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass follow the Lord’s exorcism of a demon in the town’s synagogue.  We hear no more of the man whom the demon possessed nor of those who witnessed the exorcism.  Simon and Andrew certainly witnessed it.  St. Luke assumes that his readers know that Jesus is already acquainted in the two brothers, which St. John confirms in his Gospel.  Luke uses Peter’s original name, Simon, since Jesus has not yet changed it.  “Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her.”  Here is early evidence of the intercession of the saints, for Peter and Andrew interceded for this woman.  It is no different today when we ask Peter and Andrew for their prayers for some cause.  She was afflicted with a severe fever from which she would die without divine help.  “He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them.”  Luke is careful to show the Lord’s position over her, perhaps recalling the words of the Psalm: “The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life” (Psalm 121, 5-7). (The “smiting” of the moon at night was thought to cause “lunacy” as the sun caused “sunburn”).  Luke reports that the Lord “rebuked” the fever as though it were sentient.  In this way he shows that he commands all things, and all things serve him.  The illness itself served to provide a sign of his power, even as did the death of Lazarus, as the Lord explained to the Apostles at the time.  “She got up immediately and waited on them.”  She got up and went to work without any period of convalescence such as she would have ordinarily needed.  Her work was to “wait” on them, reminding us that this is our work too, and we can do this when we are ill as well as when we are well.  

“At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him.”  Luke tells us that Simon’s mother-in-law waited on Jesus and the others which tells us the healing occurred around the time of the midday meal.  By sunset some hours had passed and the story of the exorcism as well as of the healing would have spread to the surrounding area.  Some of the sick would have walked hours.  Other would have had to be carried or dragged on mats.  “He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.”  The Lord could have cured them at one and the same time, but he chose the exhausting method of meeting each one, perhaps exchanging a few words with each, and healing them individually, standing for hours.  In this way he showed his love for each.  Looking back at this we can learn that the Lord would have died over and over again for us if he could have, and if this would have won for him the love and gratitude of each human.  Even so, the one Death he died overwhelmed him with a suffering that we can never imagine.  “And demons also came out from many, shouting, ‘You are the Son of God.’  But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.”  The demons now cry out anything, tempting him to himself to reveal himself to them.  Since he had already publicly revealed at Nazareth that he was the Messiah, they did know this about him.  Jesus “did not allow them to speak”, that is, to do anymore than make a single cry which would prove the case of the possession as well as help indicate the success of the exorcism afterwards.  

“At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place.”  If the Lord slept, he could not have slept much.  St. Mark tells us that after this torrent of miracles, “rising very early, going out, he went into a desert place: and there he prayed” (Mark 1, 35).  Perhaps the wasteland resembled, to some extent, the world at the very beginning: “The earth was void and empty” (Genesis 1, 2).  Here is the Lord, as the sun’s rays only begin to light the sky, beginning his work of re-creation and redemption.  “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent.”  For the first time, he teaches that he has been “sent” into the world, having preexisted it; he was outside the world and now he is inside it.  He also reveals his purpose for being sent: to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, that the redemption of the human race is now st hand.  “And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”  If we read only Gospels of Matthew and Mark we would not know that Jesus preached in the towns of Judea, for they do not mention this.  Luke is careful to do so to show the Gentiles reading his Gospel that the whole Jewish nation had the opportunity to accept or reject him.

Eventually in Capernaum the Lord’s miracles became commonplace.  The people took them and him for granted so that he rebuked them before his final journey to Jerusalem.  Let us look about us and see the many miracles and signs of love that he gives to us that our love for him may grow.