Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint 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 Messiah.
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.
Here we see a difficult situation for Peter
Some say that this is the moment that will later lead Peter to his denial! Jesus heals his mother-in-law (ha ha). Just a little laughter to start today’s meditation.
Now seriously, let’s look at the implication that fever can have: it can make you imagine things, it may make you uncomfortable and/or over excite you. Something similar to what happened to Peter’s mother-in-law, might happen to you in your life. A fever may lead you to create illusions and see things that don’t really exist. Are you going through something like that? Are you allowing yourself to be led by an overactive imagination? Overthinking? Are you allowing these to lead your life? Are you overwhelmed by what you think might happen in the future? Ask Jesus to shelter you in reality. Look hard at the reality around you because between the two of them – imagination and doubt – they can make a terrible mess in your mind. Are you immersed in this problem?
Let’s go into the second point: ‘discomfort’. When you are feverish you sweat. You feel uncomfortable, you just want to be in bed and not talk to anyone. You may not even know what you want: you pull the covers off and back on again, you want another pillow, then you don’t. How many times do you feel like you don’t even know what you want? You may be difficult to understand: you want something, then you want something else, or nothing at all. There are moments in life and situations that lead us to feel uncomfortable, when we don’t want to put up with anything or anyone. Don’t let that situation to keep you stuck in bed. So many people nowadays feel so stressed up that don’t even want to get out of bed, they don’t want to go on living, they don’t want to continue to face life. They don’t want to go out and fight, they’re done with everything and everyone. Don’t fall for that because when you are trapped by that situation, it’s difficult to overcome it.
The third point is being ‘over-excited’, distressed, and/or unable to tolerate anything or anyone. When you don’t have Jesus, life itself troubles you so much that it makes you unbearable. You can’t put up with anything; you shout about every little thing, you use foul language, you constantly reproach people around you. Have you become a grumpy person, an insufferable person? Be honest, you either trust in God and entrust Him with everything that you are going through or life exacerbates you and you don’t put yourself in God’s hands. You want to solve everything on your own, you want to have everything under control, and when you see that things don’t turn out the way you want, you become hot-headed and take it out on everyone around you – your mother, your father, your husband, your wife, your children… you may even kick the dog.
In the Gospel, we see Jesus leaving, not staying stuck in one place. He goes out to heal elsewhere. This is what you and I have to learn: let’s go out and help heal others; there are many with ‘a fever’ in this world and we have to cure them before bed sucks them up and they become unbearable and unable to go out into the world and live. Just in case, pray for me so I do not get that fever…
So, don’t become grumpy and unbearable.
God bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And don’t forget Heaven is our goal.
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