The miracles Jesus performed during his public ministry were not feats of magic.  They were significant events because they were signs of his God-given power to heal.  The miracles of Jesus were also a living, loving, and tangible sign that the Kingdom of God had finally arrived on earth.  Jesus shows his loving concern in today's Gospel by healing Simon's mother-in-law, who was ill with a fever.  Jesus approaches the woman, and in the presence of Simon, Andrew, James, and John, takes her hand and helps her up; by this very action of healing, the fever left her, and as the Gospel account tells us, "she waited on them."  Jesus' action of healing was the foreshadowing of his resurrection, in which we will all share at the end of time.

In what ways are you in need of healing?  Allow Jesus to take you by the hand and raise you up.

Fr. Joseph