The Lord Jesus Christ, our healing, redemption, and salvation.
Dear brothers and sisters, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
We just ended the Christmas season, which was the celebration of the Nativity or the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is known as the “Mystery of the Incarnation,” in which Jesus Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, took flesh and became man, in fulfillment of Angel Gabriel’s message to Mary and the prophecy of Isaiah that “a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel, a name which means, “God is with us.” Jesus Christ is truly God.
However, by taking flesh, Jesus Christ was fully human, sharing our human body, mind, heart, and will. Or, as the author of the letter to the Hebrew puts it, through His incarnation, He became like us, His brothers and sisters, in every way. Because He was like us and knew our human struggles, challenges, frailties, sufferings, temptations, weaknesses, and the allure of sin, He became our merciful and faithful high priest who mediates between us and God and expiates our sins.
Jesus Our Redeemer
Jesus Christ’s birth was proof of God’s love for us and His willingness to save, redeem, and reconcile us to Himself. John the Evangelist puts it thus, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).
St. Paul also writes, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption” (Gal. 3:4-5). Jesus Christ achieved this redemptive act and reconciliation by willfully offering Himself on the cross of Calvary as an expiatory sacrifice to God the Father, showing He is our High Priest. Thus, through His death on the Cross, Jesus Christ not only saved, redeemed, and reconciled us to God but also destroyed the one who has the power of death, the Devil.
Jesus Our Healer
The purpose of Jesus Christ’s coming to the world was to bring salvation to humankind, as stated earlier. Upon reading the passage from the scroll of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (Lk. 4:18-19). Jesus Christ said that the passage was fulfilled in Him. Jesus Christ’s salvation mission encompasses spiritual, physical, and emotional restoration and healing.
Christ’s healing mission is a significant part of His salvation work. In today’s Gospel, St. Mark presents Jesus Christ’s healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. He also healed or cured all the sick who were brought to Him and cast out demons from those possessed by demons. By healing the sick and casting out demons, Jesus Christ showed His authority and power over sickness and the Devil. Also, through the miracle of healing granted to the sick, Jesus Christ continued to encourage the faith of those who came to Him. As such, they clamored and looked for Him. Let us also clamor for the Lord, knowing that we are beneficiaries of God’s love, mercy, healing, and miracles.
Always remember that Jesus loves you!
(Readings: Hebrew 2:14-18; Mark 1:29-39)
