After Bigger Fish

Evaluating both earthly life and eternal life

02/07/2022

Mk 6:53-56 After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.

We will all have our "tough questions" to ask Jesus when we see him in heaven, hopefully. One of my questions will be why, when he had the chance, didn’t Jesus cure all the sick people on earth and eradicate human sickness and suffering? Have you ever wondered that? In the gospel today, people scurry about the country and bring all the sick to our Lord on mats. And what happens? We read, “They begged that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.” And who can doubt that such healings are a great thing, and perhaps the best thing of all?

Ask any sick person if they want anything more than to feel healthy and better and you can guess their answer. I would certainly second that sentiment last week when I was stuck at home with COVID again. And yet, Jesus did not set up the first Catholic hospital on that spot and dedicate his life and ministry to miraculous physical healings. Why not? Surely that is what the people in the gospel in Gennesaret wanted then and that is what people who hear the gospel today want now; people like me who are sick.

One day a man suffered a serious heart attack and was sent to a Catholic hospital where he had open heart surgery. When he woke up, he saw a nun seated next to his bed with a clipboard loaded with forms, holding a pen. She asked him how he would pay for his procedure. “Do you have insurance?” she asked. The man replied in a raspy voice: “No health insurance.” The nun asked, “Do you have money in the bank?” The man answered: “No money in the bank.”

She continued: “Do you have a relative who could help?” He said: “I only have spinster sister who is a nun.’ The nun grew angry and said loudly: “Nuns are not spinsters! We are married to God!” The patient answered: “Perfect. Send the bill to my brother-in-law.” In other words, we all want to send the bill to Jesus, and ask him to take care of our healthcare. In our human estimation: our physical well-being is our greatest need and therefore our highest good.

Let me ask the question again: why didn’t Jesus heal all the people in Palestine and essentially become "the brother-in-law" who takes care of our healthcare? Well, I think for the same reason that a few verses earlier in Mk 6 (vv. 31-44), Jesus feeds a crowd of 5000 with five barley loaves and two fish. But that miracle, great as it was, only begs the question in my mind: why didn’t Jesus snap his divine fingers and feed the 5 million people in the whole Roman Empire who were starving for loaves and fish?

In other words, I believe Jesus was after bigger fish. What bigger fish could there possibly be than our physical health and well-being? Well, the bigger fish of our spiritual health and well-being. Yes, Jesus wanted to heal and feed the body to be sure, but he was far (infinitely) more interested in healing and feeding our souls. Why? Well, because sooner or later our bodies will die, but our souls will live into eternity.

Quite frequently, I am approached by people in the church parking lot who ask for my help. Invariably, they are soliciting money for their needs. One needs money for a bus ticket to visit his sick grandmother; another has been kicked out of a homeless shelter and needs a hotel room; another just started a job and won’t be paid for two weeks but needs help with his overdue bills today. And of course, there are the countless people on street corners asking for a handout.

My answer is always the same: “Please come and talk to Dc. Greg!” Sorry to throw Dc. Greg under the bus ticket, but in a sense, like Jesus, I am after bigger fish. That is, even though feeding, clothing, and healing the body is important, healing, feeding and clothing the soul is far more important. Just like Jesus did not spend his whole life multiplying loaves and fish and healing everyone who came to him, but left to preach the Gospel of salvation, so, too, the Church exists to offer us eternal life, not just earthly life.

I often ponder the paradigmatic parable of the Good Samaritan in Lk 10:25-37, and whether that means we should always stop each and every time to help the person in physical need. Maybe it means that we should. But it seems Jesus did not always stop to help the person in need in the gospels. Why? Because he was after bigger fish.

Praised be Jesus Christ!