HE TOOK AWAY OUR INFIRMITIES

Lam 2,2.10-14.1 8-19; Ps 73; Mt 8,5-17
30 JUNE

The Evangelist Matthew applies to Jesus the Prophecy of the Suffering Servant. He applies it to him not in the moment of the passion, while he is on the cross, but after having worked some miracles, after having freed men from their infirmities and illnesses.

Who would believe what we have heard? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth; There was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him. He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, One of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; But the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all. Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth. Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who would have thought any more of his destiny? When he was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of his people, A grave was assigned him among the wicked and a burial place with evildoers, Though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood. (But the Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.) If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him. Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear. Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, Because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; And he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses (Is 53,1-12).

What does the Holy Spirit want to reveal to us through this interpretation? What is the truth contained in it? The truth is highly revolutionary. Sin cannot be atoned by leaving men in their bed of sicknesses, sufferings, calamities, physical poverty and spiritual ills. Man’s salvation is at the same time of the soul, the spirit and the body. Each one, according to his spiritual and material abilities, must work so that man may be made man and may live as a man. Jesus came to give man all life. He took the sick life on himself to give him a healthy life.

When he entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” He said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” And Jesus said to the centurion, “You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.” And at that very hour (his) servant was healed. Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him. When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, to fulfil what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: “He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

Thus, the Holy Spirit teaches us that faith in Christ Jesus is not aimed only at the salvation of the soul. Salvation is of man. Just as Jesus is the Redeemer of man, so too the Christian must be the redeemer of man. Everyone as a man must redeem himself in Christ, must help every other person in the work of his redemption.

Mother of Jesus, Angels and Saints, make us redeemed in Christ to redeem the world in Christ.