You and I have all been sick. I actually grew up with a mother who slowly slipped into virtually total paralysis. When illness overtakes us we become its slave in a sense. If you want to go to work and a virus is attacking you so that you are so sick that you cannot get out of bed, you stay in bed. You have no choice. The virus has made you its slave. In a sense, for a while, it owns you.

I remember many years ago, I was in a town in Ecuador. This town was like the old west, literally. Cowboys traveled on horses, cars were scarce and the roads were all dirt roads. One of the residents of the town had suffered a stroke a long time before I got there. So he really could do no more than rest in his hammock. Imagine being in that situation. This shows the power of illness. It can overtake you and own you.

This is the power of illness, however, there is another power as well. It is that those who have the power to heal are seen as the most powerful of all. People will do everything they can for the one who has the power to heal. Hence, why the health care debate is such a strong debate in our world today.

In today’s gospel, we see Jesus healing Peter’s Mother-in-law. We begin the gospel with her being slave to a fever. She cannot get out bed. Jesus heals her of what we ultimately would consider a mild illness and she then begins to serve them, joyful at getting her strength back.

However, it is fascinating that by the end of the gospel, obviously the word gets around that Jesus has the power to heal and those who are slaves to their illness seek freedom.

As the gospel says, he uses this opportunity to preach to the people and to heal and to drive out demons. His preaching is that people must repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand. The sign of his preaching is that he is conquering the manifestations of the kingdom of the world.

This brings us to see the bigger picture. Which kingdom do you belong to, the kingdom of the world or the kingdom of God.

One kingdom enslaves us and the other frees us. You cannot belong to both kingdoms at the same time. You choose one or the other.

Right now, Catholic leaders in the United States are in a conundrum. They supported the health care bill and now, they find their support has put them in a position where they have to go against their conscience. They did not see the trap coming. Despite the fact that we warned them and they did not listen. Now they find the bill they supported wants to enslave their consciences. Which kingdom do you want to belong to, the kingdom of world or the kingdom of God. One enslaves, the other frees.

Every choice we make will lead us to one kingdom or the other.

Every illicit choice we are invited to make is based on enjoying something once. It does not work that way. Once becomes twice, twice becomes thrice and suddenly our life is centered on that one thing. but the promise was only once. We can easily become slave to the world when we turn our back on the kingdom of God.

This is why teaching and living our faith is so important, it is not about the right thing to do, it is literally about the difference  between slavery and freedom.

People talk about being afraid of demonic possession. I have never seen demonic possession, I have read about it. However, I always teach that drug abuse is the closest thing to demonic possession I  have ever seen. The drug owns you, whether it is alcohol, cocaine, heroin. It does not matter, it owns you, completely. How does it begin, again with that one time promise.

The same with pornography, greed, all these things take control and own you. Then you are stuck. It all starts with making a choice to enter the other kingdom. To compromise with it, to go along this one time and to not listen to the wisdom that says “not a good idea.”

My first captain on my second ship used to tell the parable in his talk against drugs that drug abuse is like diving into a muddy pond. It is one thing to dive into a clear swimming pool, you know what is below the surface. But when you dive into a muddy pond, you have no idea what is below the surface. You may not even survive.

Jesus offers us the kingdom. We knows where he is leading us. However, when we turn from Him and walk another path, we risk being enslaved because his Kingdom alone is the kingdom of freedom.

Peter’s Mother in Law was slave to a simple virus. It was not by her own hand. But she was freed by the Lord of freedom. We have the choice everyday which kingdom we will live in. One leads to slavery, Christ alone leads us to freedom.

God Bless You,

Fr. Robert J Carr

You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr. Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know at Facebook