In all the gospels, in all the scriptures, there is perhaps no better spokesman for our human condition than blind Bartimeaus, sitting beside the road from Jericho to here. He asks for more than alms, for more than a handout. He cries aloud, again and again “Master, I want to see…”
And so do we.
Today we celebrate a mass of healing, in which we take a moment to acknowledge our need for healing, and our desire to see and experience God’s promised mercy. “Master, I want to see…”
In the years around the Second Vatican Council, the Church remembered the Sacrament of the Sick. We went from calling and understanding it as the last preparation for impending death, “Extreme Unction”, to calling it what the early church called it: the anointing of the sick. A hand is imposed on the head, invoking the Holy Spirit’s healing; Head and hands are anointed with soothing oil, and tender words of healing are spoken:
Through this holy anointing
may the Lord in his love and mercy help you
with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
and
May the Lord who frees you from sin
save you and raise you up. Amen.
So you see, this sacrament is not about waving a magic wand and driving illness or trials away. Illness and trials are an inevitable part of being human. Rather, the anointing of the sick is a prayer for healing more than for cure, for seeing and believing in the saving power of God--“Master, I want to see…”
Healing is not the same as curing. A cure is a fix, but healing is a strengthening. A surgery may produce a cure; broken bones are healed. There’s a big difference between asking to get well and asking to get better. “Lord, I want to get better” is what Bartimaeus asked when he spoke, when he shouted his prayer of faith, “Master, I want to see.” I want to get better.
Many of us in this community, especially the elders, know the diminishment of sickness and aging. We go to the doctor, take our pills, sometimes even do our exercises, yet deep down we come up against the hard truth of being human: that we are mortal. Jesus, son of God and son of Mary, himself met that truth when he hung broken and unanointed on the cross. And so we come to him to ask him to accompany us, to strengthen us in our fears, in our pains, and in our uncertainties. “Master, I want to see.”
And there is so much in our lives, in our hearts, in our memories that needs to get better, even if we can't get well. Memories that need to be healed. So many of us are plagued, tormented by ancient, destructive memories: of failures, or misunderstandings or betrayals, of unkind words or acts we did or endured. We can bring our memories today to the healing touch of the spirit of Christ, and ask for a healing of our memories, a letting go of those memories that paralyze us, that limit our psychic and spiritual mobility, that make us hard, make us mean spirited. “Master, I want to see, I want to forgive and forget.”
Most importantly, we can bring our hearts to be healed. Our hearts get bruised a lot by life, and truth to tell, sometimes get broken. And we know that while they may never be entirely cured, our bruised and broken hearts can be strengthened, healed, made better through the balm of mercy and the anointing of compassion. “Master, I want to see, I want to experience, I want to be your mercy and compassion.”
Whether or not you choose to be anointed today, we are united in our desire to get better. Let’s ask for that blessing today, for the blessing of healing for us, for our memories and our hearts, for the healing of those we love, for the healing of our world.
“Master, I want to get better. Master, I want to see.”
Fr. Tom Lucas, SJ