We Interrupt This Program . . . An unanticipated interruption In Jesus Plans . . . and your plans in your life . . .
Sep 5, 2018 00:41:58 #
09/03/2018 We Interrupt This Program . . . An unanticipated interruption In Jesus Plans . . . and your plans in your life . . .
Marcus Grodi,
https://chnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/1809nwslttr_email.pdf
The great Christian writer, C.S. Lewis, once said:
“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's ‘own’ or ‘real’ life.
The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life . . .
The life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination.”
Recently, the Gospel reading for Mass included an important, unanticipated “interruption” in the life of Christ . . . actually It's a Russian nesting dolls of interruptions.
Twice the Apostle John exclaimed "that there were many more signs and wonders that Jesus did than could be contained in his or any of the Gospels."
So why was it that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all felt that this interruption within an interruption within an interruption was so important they each included it in their short accounts of Jesus’ life ?
a. Interruption number one.
As St. Mark tells the story, Jesus had just crossed the sea in a boat and was inundated by a great crowd.
This was likely an interruption in his plans.
b. Interruption number two.
Out of the crowd came a local synagogue ruler named Jairus who convinced Jesus to change his plans and come heal his dying daughter.
But as the great crowd followed Jesus to see what would happen,
c. Interruption number three occurred,
And it was so significant that Jesus and the crowd stopped dead in their tracks.
St. Mark tells us:
“And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the crowd, and said, ‘Who touched my garments ?’”
And then his disciples incredulously asked the obvious' . . .
“Ah, Master, we’re kind of locked in here by this rude, filthy crowd. I mean, who didn’t touch you ?” or something like that.
But Jesus ignored them and looked around to see who had done it.
As the disciples quipped, one could imagine a bunch of people backing off, apologizing, . . . “Hey, man, sorry. Didn’t mean to crowd your space !”
But then came the third interruption, that has been remembered for 19 centuries in the Catholic Oral tradition teaching and 16 centuries recorded in the Holy Bible.
A woman falls out of the crowd before him and in tears of joy, and tells Jesus that she “had had a flow of blood for twelve years, had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.
She had heard the reports about him, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment,” for she believed, “If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well.”
And to her surprise, which led to “fear and trembling . . . immediately the hemorrhage ceased, and she felt in her body, that she was healed of her disease.”
It’s interesting to imagine how the disciples and crowd might have been anticipating Jesus would respond to this audacious, brash woman, who had had the gall to interrupt them
in her ritual uncleanness !
But Jesus said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well or, “has saved you”; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
NAB
Why was this interruption, . . . within an interruption, . . . within an interruption, . . . so significant as to be included in the Gospels ?
Certainly it emphasizes Jesus’ divine power to heal, as well as Jesus encourages those struggling with seemingly incurable diseases to put their faith in Christ.
But is there also another hidden spiritual meaning, that remains of great significance, to a full understanding of the power of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ ?
In her condition as an unclean woman in Jewish society, and only one of a multitude crowding around Jesus, she felt unworthy and unable to approach Him directly.
Yet, in the boldness of her faith, she believed she could reach Him and receive the gift of His presence by merely touching the hem of His garment.
She could not touch Him directly, but through the physicality of His garment, and by her faith, she reached Him and received from Him healing, saving grace.
In this interruption, therefore, we catch a glimpse . . . a sign or type of symbolism of Faith . . . of the dawning of Jesus's sacramentality, of the age of His Church.
The Catholic Church Catechism states:
“The Church was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the ‘dispensation of the mystery’ . . . the age of the Church, during which Christ manifests, makes present, and communicates his work of salvation through the liturgy of his Church, ‘until he comes.’
In this age of the Church, Christ now lives and acts in and with his Church, in a new way appropriate to this new age.
Jesus acts through the sacraments in what the common Tradition of the East and the West calls ‘the Sacramental Economy’;
This is the communication (or ‘dispensation’) of the fruits of Jesus Christ’s Paschal mystery, in the celebration of the Church’s ‘Sacramental' Liturgy.”
CCC, 1076
St. Paul wrote, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.”
1 Cor 13:12
When we were baptized, we became new creations, children of God, members of the Mystical Body of Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit.
But we probably felt no different, maybe acted no different.
We saw through a mirror dimly, but by faith we touched the garment of Christ and received grace, healing, and salvation.
When we were indelibly changed, empowered by the Holy Spirit to be disciples of Christ . . . but yet I felt no different and, more often than not, I know I fall short of being a good disciple or husband.
Yet, by faith, we have touched the hem of His garment and received grace, healing, and Christs salvation.
And when we come forward in faith, as only one amongst the crowd, unworthy for Him, to even enter under our roof, . . . to receive the holy Eucharist.
When we receive Him on our tongue or in our hands, we are touching the hem of His garment, receiving grace, healing, and salvation.
In fact, though we see in a mirror dimly, blinded by the limits of our senses, we yet touch Him, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, through the garment of the accidents of bread and wine in the communion of the Mass.
Even the sacramentals, sacred artwork, statues, rituals, and devotions are all threads in the hem of His garment, through which we reach Him and, by faith, receive from Him the graces of healing and salvation.
Jesus said, as He pointed ahead to this present of His “dispensation of the Eucharistic mystery.”
“Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
John 6:53
Others in the crowd around the woman and Jesus may also have been plagued with illness and disease, but through lack of faith, refused to press forward to reach Him, to even touch His garment.
And some who heard Jesus speak about eating His Body and drinking His Blood refused to follow Him any longer: “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it ?”
Which is also why a vast portion of Christianity, since the Reformation, has denied the mystery and power of the Holy Eucharist and the sacraments of the Church.
And as a result, has settled for a Christianity of "Faith Alone," or as Saint Paul warned Christians, is “holding a form of religion, but denying the power of it.”
2 Tim 3:5
May we be interrupted, from the distractions and presumptions of our every day lives, in the midst of our doubts and sickness . . . physical as well as spiritually. . . .
To reach out in faith to touch the hem of His garment in the Holy Sacraments that, He has given us through the gift of His Church.
We Interrupt This Program . . . An unanticipated interruption In Jesus Plans, . . . and your plans in your life . . .
Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
John 6:53
Marcus Grodi,
https://chnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/1809nwslttr_email.pdf
The great Christian writer, C.S. Lewis, once said:
“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's ‘own’ or ‘real’ life.
The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life . . .
The life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination.”
Recently, the Gospel reading for Mass included an important, unanticipated “interruption” in the life of Christ . . . actually It's a Russian nesting dolls of interruptions.
Twice the Apostle John exclaimed "that there were many more signs and wonders that Jesus did than could be contained in his or any of the Gospels."
So why was it that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all felt that this interruption within an interruption within an interruption was so important they each included it in their short accounts of Jesus’ life ?
a. Interruption number one.
As St. Mark tells the story, Jesus had just crossed the sea in a boat and was inundated by a great crowd.
This was likely an interruption in his plans.
b. Interruption number two.
Out of the crowd came a local synagogue ruler named Jairus who convinced Jesus to change his plans and come heal his dying daughter.
But as the great crowd followed Jesus to see what would happen,
c. Interruption number three occurred,
And it was so significant that Jesus and the crowd stopped dead in their tracks.
St. Mark tells us:
“And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the crowd, and said, ‘Who touched my garments ?’”
And then his disciples incredulously asked the obvious' . . .
“Ah, Master, we’re kind of locked in here by this rude, filthy crowd. I mean, who didn’t touch you ?” or something like that.
But Jesus ignored them and looked around to see who had done it.
As the disciples quipped, one could imagine a bunch of people backing off, apologizing, . . . “Hey, man, sorry. Didn’t mean to crowd your space !”
But then came the third interruption, that has been remembered for 19 centuries in the Catholic Oral tradition teaching and 16 centuries recorded in the Holy Bible.
A woman falls out of the crowd before him and in tears of joy, and tells Jesus that she “had had a flow of blood for twelve years, had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.
She had heard the reports about him, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment,” for she believed, “If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well.”
And to her surprise, which led to “fear and trembling . . . immediately the hemorrhage ceased, and she felt in her body, that she was healed of her disease.”
It’s interesting to imagine how the disciples and crowd might have been anticipating Jesus would respond to this audacious, brash woman, who had had the gall to interrupt them
in her ritual uncleanness !
But Jesus said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well or, “has saved you”; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
NAB
Why was this interruption, . . . within an interruption, . . . within an interruption, . . . so significant as to be included in the Gospels ?
Certainly it emphasizes Jesus’ divine power to heal, as well as Jesus encourages those struggling with seemingly incurable diseases to put their faith in Christ.
But is there also another hidden spiritual meaning, that remains of great significance, to a full understanding of the power of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ ?
In her condition as an unclean woman in Jewish society, and only one of a multitude crowding around Jesus, she felt unworthy and unable to approach Him directly.
Yet, in the boldness of her faith, she believed she could reach Him and receive the gift of His presence by merely touching the hem of His garment.
She could not touch Him directly, but through the physicality of His garment, and by her faith, she reached Him and received from Him healing, saving grace.
In this interruption, therefore, we catch a glimpse . . . a sign or type of symbolism of Faith . . . of the dawning of Jesus's sacramentality, of the age of His Church.
The Catholic Church Catechism states:
“The Church was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the ‘dispensation of the mystery’ . . . the age of the Church, during which Christ manifests, makes present, and communicates his work of salvation through the liturgy of his Church, ‘until he comes.’
In this age of the Church, Christ now lives and acts in and with his Church, in a new way appropriate to this new age.
Jesus acts through the sacraments in what the common Tradition of the East and the West calls ‘the Sacramental Economy’;
This is the communication (or ‘dispensation’) of the fruits of Jesus Christ’s Paschal mystery, in the celebration of the Church’s ‘Sacramental' Liturgy.”
CCC, 1076
St. Paul wrote, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.”
1 Cor 13:12
When we were baptized, we became new creations, children of God, members of the Mystical Body of Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit.
But we probably felt no different, maybe acted no different.
We saw through a mirror dimly, but by faith we touched the garment of Christ and received grace, healing, and salvation.
When we were indelibly changed, empowered by the Holy Spirit to be disciples of Christ . . . but yet I felt no different and, more often than not, I know I fall short of being a good disciple or husband.
Yet, by faith, we have touched the hem of His garment and received grace, healing, and Christs salvation.
And when we come forward in faith, as only one amongst the crowd, unworthy for Him, to even enter under our roof, . . . to receive the holy Eucharist.
When we receive Him on our tongue or in our hands, we are touching the hem of His garment, receiving grace, healing, and salvation.
In fact, though we see in a mirror dimly, blinded by the limits of our senses, we yet touch Him, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, through the garment of the accidents of bread and wine in the communion of the Mass.
Even the sacramentals, sacred artwork, statues, rituals, and devotions are all threads in the hem of His garment, through which we reach Him and, by faith, receive from Him the graces of healing and salvation.
Jesus said, as He pointed ahead to this present of His “dispensation of the Eucharistic mystery.”
“Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
John 6:53
Others in the crowd around the woman and Jesus may also have been plagued with illness and disease, but through lack of faith, refused to press forward to reach Him, to even touch His garment.
And some who heard Jesus speak about eating His Body and drinking His Blood refused to follow Him any longer: “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it ?”
Which is also why a vast portion of Christianity, since the Reformation, has denied the mystery and power of the Holy Eucharist and the sacraments of the Church.
And as a result, has settled for a Christianity of "Faith Alone," or as Saint Paul warned Christians, is “holding a form of religion, but denying the power of it.”
2 Tim 3:5
May we be interrupted, from the distractions and presumptions of our every day lives, in the midst of our doubts and sickness . . . physical as well as spiritually. . . .
To reach out in faith to touch the hem of His garment in the Holy Sacraments that, He has given us through the gift of His Church.
We Interrupt This Program . . . An unanticipated interruption In Jesus Plans, . . . and your plans in your life . . .
Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
John 6:53
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