Winning Friends

Wanting what Jesus wants

 Mark 1:29-31

On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

             I always love it when the reading from Mark chapter one comes up because I get to tell my favorite Fulton Sheen joke.  The archbishop asked, “Do you know the real reason why Peter denied Jesus three times?  It was because we read in the gospel of Mark that Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law.”  If you didn’t get that joke, it’s because you’re not married.

             But that gospel pericope raises some important questions.  For example, why did Jesus cure Peter’s mother-in-law?  Which leads to another question: why didn’t Jesus cure everyone in Galilee who was sick that year?  That, in turn, raises another, broader question about Jesus’ miracles in general.  Why didn’t Jesus just snap his divine fingers and feed all the hungry people in the world, and clothe all the naked people, and stop all the tsunamis and hurricanes before they caused untold death and destruction?  You know, it’s very interesting to investigate why Jesus did what he did, but I think it’s far more pertinent and perplexing to ponder why DIDN’T Jesus do so many other great things that he could have done?  At root, we’re asking: why did Jesus bother to do anything at all??

             I think Dale Carnegie can help us understand the mind of our Master.  One of the principles he propounded in his famous book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” was this.  He said, “if you give people what they want, they will give you what you want.”  For instance, if I give you a short sermon on Sunday, you’ll put more money in the collection plate.  See how that works?  So, Jesus gave us what we wanted: he healed the sick, and he fed the hungry, and he raised Lazarus from the dead.  But the real reason he did all that was to awaken in us a desire to give him what he wants.  And what does Jesus want?  Well, that’s not some great

mystery – he says it a thousand times in the gospels: he wants us to love each other.  That's all that Jesus wants.  You see, all our Lord's healings and miracles and teachings were to motivate us to want what he wants, namely, to love each other.  That’s the reason why Jesus did what he did – like heal Peter’s mother-in-law – but more importantly, that’s the reason why Jesus didn't do what he didn’t do, like all the other miracles.

            In the 11th century, St. Anselm of Canterbury, a great theologian, wrote a penetrating book called, “Cur Deus Homo?” (Why Did God Become Man?).  Well, the answer to that question is easy.  God became a man to give us what we want, so that one day, we would give him what he wants.  God became a man in order “to win friends and influence people.”

            Praised be Jesus Christ!