23rd Tuesday in Ordinary Time (II)
The Cure is in the Call

Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11; Psalm 149; Luke 6:12-19

After spending the whole night in prayer, Jesus descends from the hills and seems to do two things: from among his disciples, he calls twelve apostles, and he then cures people of their diseases. Jesus calls and he cures.

And yet, deeper reflection on the passage might lead us to see that Jesus is really doing one and the same thing. In calling the apostles is he not also healing them of their spiritual shortcomings so that they can be sent out to minister in his name? And in curing the people of their infirmities is he not also calling them to follow him, to be his disciples?

Paul takes the point even further. In upbraiding the Corinthians for conduct unbecoming of Christians, of true followers of Christ, Paul reminds them of how they who were once sinners have been washed clean, and sanctified, and justified through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and through the Spirit of our God. In this way, he reminds them that their spiritual healing takes effect in so far as they respond to God’s call in Christ, in so far as they act like true followers of Christ. For the healing is in the call. And to claim the healing necessitates that they heed the call. Is this not also the lesson of Judas Iscariot, who though he was called and healed, became a traitor, and lost his God-given inheritance?

There is a call in the healing. And the healing is in the call. How are we being invited to claim our healing, to respond to our calling, today?