Today Jesus reveals Himself as the Divine Physician. We see in today’s Gospel Jesus dealing with life’s most difficult yet common problems - the problems of worry and anxiety. Let’s look at what we just read to see how this is so. 

The background of the Gospel is Jesus leaving the area of Mount Tabor, where Jesus’ divinity was revealed at the Transfiguration, and He and His disciples headed about 30 miles further north, into Galilee. Today’s Gospel begins by saying that Jesus did not wish anyone to know about where He and His disciples were.

Why did Jesus want to want his whereabouts to remain unknown? I think it is because, as Jesus headed further north, he was walking further into the territory that King Herod the Great previously ruled over, the same King Herod that instigated the Slaughter of the Innocents, trying to kill Jesus when He was an infant. Now, Herod the Great’s son, Herod Antipas, was in charge of Galilee, so Jesus was certainly in dangerous territory. One one hand, Jesus couldn’t take the chance of being killed before His time, in a place other than Jerusalem.

On the other hand, I think there were two overwhelming reasons to travel to travel far into Galilee: First, Jesus knew His time on earth was coming to an end quickly and He needed uninterrupted time for intensive instruction of His disciples. Today’s Gospel talks about Jesus doing exactly this. We can assume Jesus wanted to travel away from Jerusalem, to where He was less well known and the crowds smaller to have the time He needed with His disciples. 

I think the second reason was that Jesus knew His time for suffering and death was near and Jesus was very anxious and worried about the nature of all he would be asked to bear during His passion and death. Surely the human side of Him didn’t want to leave His mother, his friends and his disciples. We might even speculate that depression might even have been a companion during those days.

So I think one of the reasons Jesus went to Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee was so that He could get Himself ready for what lay ahead and deal with the very human emotions he was feeling.

So, how did Jesus real Himself as the Divine Physician?  “Taking a child, he placed it in the their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.’” Here Jesus used a little child as an example of the most vulnerable person He was with, but I suggest if some poor Gallilean person who was wracked by some obvious mental or psychological anguish were there at that moment instead of the little child, Jesus may well have put His arms around them and linked them to God the Father instead of using the little child.

Let’s think about what Jesus means by linking the most vulnerable to God the Father: little children instinctively trust their parents; when they’re hungry, tired or colicky, all they know is when they go to their mommy or daddy their problems will go away. Of course, we think it’s because their mommy and daddy know what to do to solve the problem, but to the little child whose whole world IS mom and dad, when the parents are present, his problems disappear.  With Jesus, it’s the same thing. Jesus tells us if we fill our lives with Him, there is no room left for worries, depression or panic attacks.  If we wrap our heads around the concepts of divine mercy and being in the presence of God for all eternity, then how anything happen but our anguish be replaced by inexpressible joy?

Surely this is what Jesus Himself was doing in Capernaum - filling Himself with the Divine Beatitude in order to gird Himself for the death He knew would surely come upon His return to Jerusalem.  Jesus, remember, was fully human too, so He experienced the full range of human emotions just like the rest of us. Jesus needed this retreat away from the crowds in Jerusalem, going into dangerous territory to deal with what must have been excruciating worry, anxiety and maybe even depression. Can you even imagine the anguish Jesus must have been feeling on this walkabout?

Jesus knew the way to relieve worry is complete trust in God’s mercy and His love. By telling his disciples to trust in God like a little child trusts his parents, Jesus was likely not only dealing with his own worries, but teaching His disciples at the same time so they would know how to deal with their own future tortures and executions. And Matthew, Mark and Luke wrote of this so that we would know this too.

Now, if we can just do this in our own lives….I know, that’s the hard part.

Let us pray:

Lord, you gave us your only Son Jesus Christ, to be not only our Savior, but to help us learn how not to be consumed by the fires of everyday living. Please help us as we stagger our way through this life to You, at times convulsed by worry and anxiety. Please help us to fill our minds and hearts with You so that all negative thoughts or emotions are forced out. Please enable our Guardian Angels and all the angels and saints in Heaven to assist us in this endeavor. In Your name we pray. Amen.