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The love of Jesus for those abused and ill

“Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Jn 5:9

It was on the occasion of His second journey with His disciples to Jerusalem when Jesus spoke these words. On His first journey, He had gone to the Temple, His Father’s house. Thissecond time, He went to another place where His Father was equally at home, the Pool of Bethesda, a place for the sick and outcast. The Bethesda pool was not a place of beauty but a place of suffering, a place that was shunned and even despised by the influential, a place where people, shamefacedly, put family members because they could no longer cope or because this pobrecito sufferedfrom incurable illness or disability.

Since Jesus was not travelling alone from Galilee to Jerusalem, we can be confident that His disciples came to Bethesda with Him, and thus were brought into contact with His compassion for the sick, disabled and abused. Here, they learned that a place of great suffering was close to His heart.

St. Paul, through the grace of his conversion, discovered this truth about Jesus; and so he wrote to the Corinthians (1 Cor 1:27-28), “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God”

When Jesus and His disciples arrived at the pool of Bethesda, in the 5 porticos there lay “a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.” Among them was a man “who had been there for 38 years.” This man, crouched on the edge of despair, racked with pains--physical, mental and spiritual, must have been startled to hear anyone speak to him, for no one ever did. But Jesus asked, “Do you want to be healed?” How many years had it been since a person cared enough to speak to him? Those at Bethesda had no friends, no family members that claimed them; they were alone and left to fend for themselves. Everything around them seemed to shout, “No one loves you,no one wants you!” Notice what the paralyzed man says to Jesus, “I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up.” His is a cry of loneliness.

So moved is Jesus by this man’s pain that He says to him at once, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”

Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche communities for the disabled, says the following about this Gospel scene, “In this story, Jesus is not responding to a man’s cry of faith, ‘Heal me!’ but to his cry of despair, the cry of humanity in despair! Jesus is responding also to the pain in His own heart: the pain of seeing the loneliness and despair of this paralyzed man. Nobody wanted to see this man, but Jesus sees him. Nobody loves him, but Jesus loves him.”

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this is why we are gathered here tonight for this Mass of Healing for those who have been abused. We are here because of Jesus Christ. And we want those who have been abused to know that He loves them, that we love them, that they are not alone. Christ has healed each of us and restored our hope when we walked the edge of despair; and He has sent us out to bring to others His gift of hope, reconciliation and healing.

Tonight, we do not simply have a social reception with speeches and prayer because we desire more than those could provide. What is needed comes from One beyond us, from God. The only “work” that can bring healing to those who have been abused and to their families and friends is the “work” of the Lord Jesus. He alone has the merciful love that is stronger than sin and more powerful than death. He accomplished this “work” of healingby offering His life to the Father on the Cross and by rising again from the dead. And He continues His healing work among us through the Church, especially when she gathers to celebrate the Eucharist.

What wondrous love is this, the love that the paralyzed man discovered at the Pool of Bethesda after 38 years of waiting, perhaps after he had already given up hope of being healed.

Jesus offers similar healing to victims of abuse and their families.

The love offered by Christ surpassesall that we could ask for or even imagine. However, it is effective in us only if we open up our hearts and receive it in faith. He will not force us to be healed; He will not compel us to accept His gift of love. He will, however, never cease to love and to call, to shine forth and to invite.

In addition, Christ gives us His own Mother to be our Mother, too.She assists us to trust in the wondrous love of her Son, to let its saving action penetrate into the deepest recesses of our souls, healing our memories, bringing the light of truth to the darkness of doubt, and transforming sorrow into compassion.

Even though the Apostles fled in fear when Jesus was arrested, led away and crucified, Mary remained near her Son. She could not “do” anything to stop the horrible atrocity but she could accompany Him. Her presence was not purely passive; her presence wasa loving solidarity of compassion. When “nothing can be done” medically, legally, or therapeutically, there are other deeper needs that can still be met through loving presence. The Mother of Jesus offered these to her Son; even at His greatest suffering. Mary’s presence at the foot of the Cross told her Son that He was known and understood, accepted and loved. To be sure, it remains hard to keep faith in God when we are assailed by doubts and when our hearts are broken. It is especially hard for those who have been abused by a member of the Church or by parents or another family member. The sexual abuse of young people and other crimes of abuse sowdoubts and insecurity in people’s hearts. Whenever such wrongs occur, it is difficultto continue to trust God -- difficult but not impossible, for nothing is impossible with God.

The Virgin Mary can help us to trust again, for she understands the pain felt by persons who have been abused. She knows about sleepless nights and the temptation to abandon hope. As Mother of Jesus, and as our Mother too, she helps to trust again in the words of her Son, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Healing of mind and heart may take time. But it can happen because the love of Christ.

With Mary, we alsopray for perpetrators of abuse, that they will repent and make amends for their sins through the grace of Christ.Only in Christ is it possible to find healing.He comes to heal the despairing and the broken-hearted. He can help us to rise and walk in the light of His love.