An interesting line from the Book of Acts has always struck my imagination and spoke deeply and voluminously to my heart. In his heartfelt speech at the house of the pagan Cornelius who precisely after this Spirit anointed witness converted to Christ, Peter said: How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him (Acts 10:38).
Already this important detail says alot and, as it stands, confirms Jesus’ word to those who believe in him which we find in Matthew chapter 5 which spells out how a Christian life should be. There Jesus powerfully states: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:16). Jesus clearly knew what he was saying because he was the first one to live to the brim what he is telling us in this life-changing verse 16. His works, in themselves, emanated the infinite mercy of the Father.
Matthew’s gospel offers us another pericope wherein we can appreciate Jesus’ going around to do good to everyone. In Matthew 9:35 we find the following verse: And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. In his famous Catena Aurea (Golden Chain), which is a compilation of Patristic commentary on the Gospels and has passages from over eighty Church Fathers, Saint Thomas Aquinas, the compiler of this masterpiece, gives us the wonderful commentary of Saint John Chrysostom on Matthew 9:32-35 which sheds great light on verse 35 itself. The great patriarch of Constantinople comments: What can be more foolish than this speech of theirs? For it cannot be pretended that one demon would cast out another; for they are wont to consent to one another’s deeds, and not to be at variance among themselves. But Christ not only cast out demons, but healed the lepers, raised the dead, forgave sins, preached the kingdom of God, and brought men to the Father, which a demon neither could nor would do.
In other words, Jesus was doing all this good in order to bring people to His and Our Father in Heaven. Jesus is the Agent of God’s Kingdom or, to use the Johannine term, Jesus is the Door to God’s Kingdom. After all he himself told in the Gospel of John: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me (John 14:6). Adding to this we might also conclude why the evangelist John, in his Prologue to the Gospel, says of Jesus: No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known (John 1:18). No one knows who the Father is and most pleases him more than Jesus, the one who is and has come out from the bosom of the Father.
Let us not forget that the Greek word for bosom is κόλπος, which literally is the upper part of the chest where a garment is naturally folded to form a “pocket”, called the bosom, in other words the position which is tantamount to intimacy (union). How beautiful it is to think of Jesus as the Father’s pocket! If that is the case, then Jesus is so right when he says in the Gospel of John: If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father (John 10:37-38).
The Second Vatican Council, specifically in its decree on the mission activity of the Church, Ad Gentes, when its speaks about the message of Christian charity that the Church is duty-bound to spread in the four corners of the earth, explicitly says: The presence of the Christian faithful in these human groups should be inspired by that charity with which God has loved us, and with which He wills that we should love one another (cf. 1 John 4:11). Christian charity truly extends to all, without distinction of race, creed, or social condition: it looks for neither gain nor gratitude. For as God loved us with an unselfish love, so also the faithful should in their charity care for the human person himself, loving him with the same affection with which God sought out man. Just as Christ, then, went about all the towns and villages, curing every kind of disease and infirmity as a sign that the kingdom of God had come (cf. Matt. 9:35ff; Acts 10:38), so also the Church, through her children, is one with men of every condition, but especially with the poor and the afflicted. For them, she gladly spends and is spent (cf. 2 Cor. 12:15), sharing in their joys and sorrows, knowing of their longings and problems, suffering with them in death’s anxieties. To those in quest of peace, she wishes to answer in fraternal dialogue, bearing them the peace and the light of the Gospel (no.12).
Then, and within the same number, Ad gentes spells out the practical consequences of living such a message in everyday life which each Christian has the responsibility to carry out: Let Christians labor and collaborate with others in rightly regulating the affairs of social and economic life. With special care, let them devote themselves to the education of children and young people by means of different kinds of schools, which should be considered not only as the most excellent means of forming and developing Christian youth, but also as a valuable public service, especially in the developing nations, working toward the uplifting of human dignity, and toward better living conditions. Furthermore, let them take part in the strivings of those peoples who, waging war on famine, ignorance, and disease, are struggling to better their way of life and to secure peace in the world. In this activity, the faithful should be eager to offer prudent aid to projects sponsored by public and private organizations, by governments, by various Christian communities, and even by non – Christian religions (no.12).
Lord Jesus, inspired by your wonderful example and completely guided by your Holy Spirit, help me to go around and let you do good and heal all the people around me whilst at the same time you do good and heal me personally. Amen.
