FAUSTI - "And she served them," says Mark of Peter's mother-in-law who was healed.This is the first miracle, indubitably the most insignificant.One would expect something more sensational to be told at the beginning. But it is instructive. The miracles of Jesus are not a show of power; they are instead signs that reveal, on the one hand, His mercy - a weakness that will take Him to the cross - and, on the other hand, what He wants to accomplish in us to make us new men as His image.
The first two, the mother-in-law and the leper, are global healings that indicate the new Spirit and the new life that He gives us. The others that follow illustrate the various specific healings of our limbs and faculties: the feet to walk after Him, the hands to receive and give like Him, the ear to hear the Truth, the tongue to communicate ourselves, the eye to see the reality before which we are what we are.
At the center is the miracle of faith, a touch that heals life and frees from death ( 5:21-45). The miracles are all in the first part of the Gospel, and culminate in the blind man of Bethsaida, who will be enlightened twice, as Peter must be to see in Jesus not only the Christ, but also the Son of God. In the second part there is only the healing of the blind man of Jericho, before the entrance into Jerusalem. It is the gift of baptismal illumination, which makes me see who He is for me and who I am for Him, in His Mystery of death for me. The smallness of the sign is all to the advantage of the greatness of the meaning. With this very small sign, the Evangelist gives us the meaning of all the miracles: they are healings that Jesus works to restore to each one of us the capacity to serve, which is our likeness to God. He himself is Son as Servant. The true miracle that He came to perform on earth is nothing astounding: it is to give us the capacity to love, that is to serve. Jesus is the Physician. With His Word He frees us from the spirit of evil, and with His contact He gives us the capacity for good. He came to give us back the fullness of life and restore our face of children. The disciple is represented by the mother-in-law, in bed with the fever, unable to serve and forced to be served or to serve herself by the others. The first miracle of the Gospel, it will be the last to come true. Good rule to say from the beginning what one is going towards!
FAUSTI - "And she served them," says Mark of Peter's mother-in-law who was healed.This is the first miracle, indubitably the most insignificant.One would expect something more sensational to be told at the beginning. But it is instructive.
RispondiEliminaThe miracles of Jesus are not a show of power; they are instead signs that reveal, on the one hand, His mercy - a weakness that will take Him to the cross - and, on the other hand, what He wants to accomplish in us to make us new men as His image.
The first two, the mother-in-law and the leper, are global healings that indicate the new Spirit and the new life that He gives us. The others that follow illustrate the various specific healings of our limbs and faculties: the feet to walk after Him, the hands to receive and give like Him, the ear to hear the Truth, the tongue to communicate ourselves, the eye to see the reality before which we are what we are.
At the center is the miracle of faith, a touch that heals life and frees from death ( 5:21-45).
The miracles are all in the first part of the Gospel, and culminate in the blind man of Bethsaida, who will be enlightened twice, as Peter must be to see in Jesus not only the Christ, but also the Son of God.
In the second part there is only the healing of the blind man of Jericho, before the entrance into Jerusalem. It is the gift of baptismal illumination, which makes me see who He is for me and who I am for Him, in His Mystery of death for me.
The smallness of the sign is all to the advantage of the greatness of the meaning.
With this very small sign, the Evangelist gives us the meaning of all the miracles: they are healings that Jesus works to restore to each one of us the capacity to serve, which is our likeness to God.
He himself is Son as Servant.
The true miracle that He came to perform on earth is nothing astounding: it is to give us the capacity to love, that is to serve.
Jesus is the Physician.
With His Word He frees us from the spirit of evil, and with His contact He gives us the capacity for good. He came to give us back the fullness of life and restore our face of children.
The disciple is represented by the mother-in-law, in bed with the fever, unable to serve and forced to be served or to serve herself by the others.
The first miracle of the Gospel, it will be the last to come true.
Good rule to say from the beginning what one is going towards!