Meeting with a doctor.

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. The Lord Jesus enters the environment of sinners in the role of a physician. This healing role is to become our lot as well. The Christian is to go boldly into the world to transform it, to sanctify it by his prayer, his work, his example, and his life. This entry of the Christian into the world has been defined by Christians as consecration, or the sanctification of the world. As the priest takes ordinary bread in his hands at Mass and, with words of consecration, transforms it into the body of Christ, so we too are to transform, to direct to God, all the things of this world that our vocation in life encounters. In this way, we can heal many human ills if people feel the presence of Christ in our presence. But the problem of Christ as a physician has yet another aspect that should interest us. Perhaps we like to take on the role of physician of other people’s sins. But who do we consider ourselves to be? As righteous and perfectly healthy? We often encounter Christ at Mass, for example, where he offers himself for the sick. We encounter Jesus through his word and sacrament. Do we think of him as a physician in these encounters? Or rather as a reward for our righteousness? It might be better not to overdo it with our righteousness. It is certainly better to turn to Christ than to a doctor. Not a few sicknesses have hidden in our souls, various paralyzes, deformities. We may not be hurt by anything, but we are not hurting others. Perhaps one of us is a wound on the organism of the community. Either way, we always need some healing, because there are no people one hundred percent healthy. But the first condition of healing is to acknowledge that we are sick. As we see the Pharisees reject the Lord Jesus, but the humble tax collectors who consider themselves sinners are justified in his sight.