In today’s American culture, one of the fastest growing responses to faith affiliation is a reply called, “NONE”. The meaning here is that they choose to not follow or believe in any faith tradition or to have no belief in God at all. Research reports that people start making that choice when they are as young as 13; that’s 8 th grade!
Contrast that with today’s gospel story of healing. The man who was healed went away from Jesus and told everyone. It became impossible for Jesus to enter a town. He remained in deserted places and still people would come from everywhere just to get a glimpse of Him or to touch His cloak.
What did it take for the people to flock to Jesus? In the case of today’s gospel, it took one man’s healing and subsequent proclamation to others about that healing which created an intense desire for others to meet Jesus and be healed by Him.
Our Catholic faith gives us amazing blessings and healing through the celebration of Sacraments. As we embark on our Lenten journey, I invite you to take time to celebrate the gifts provided to us through the Sacraments several times each week. Daily Mass and frequent Reconciliation are a couple of ways that will allow each of us to receive extra blessings and healing. Offer your sorrows and sufferings to the Lord. Be healed and then proclaim your story of healing to all who will listen.
May this year’s Lenten journey provide you many opportunities to share the Good News of Christ’s healing power with others. May the story of our lives help us to become disciples of Christ and may we shed light to the world so that others may experience His love and healing.
It’s up to you and me. Who will you share your healing story with this week? For when His love and light shine in us and through us, we should no longer hear about the “NONES”.
