THE STRANGE FEVER

After the liberation of the possessed man, Jesus leaves the synagogue and heads to Simon Peter’s house, where his mother-in-law is in the grip of a fever. Why does Marco highlight a trivial fact in itself? A woman in bed with a fever is not a catastrophe. Upon closer inspection, however, it is not so irrelevant. We must know, first of all, that fever was seen as a punishment for those who were unfaithful to the covenant (cf. Lev 26.16; Dt 28.22). This woman therefore lives in a state of infidelity, which generates paralysis (she was in bed). In this figure, seen symbolically as an icon of the believing community, Christians are called to verify whether by chance such sterility and impotence are not due to a radical infidelity to the Gospel. Jesus intervenes and does so through three precise and punctual actions. “He came near”, this phrase, in the whole Gospel, we find only here. We can say that Jesus is the good Samaritan who passes by the suffering of his neighbour and is moved by compassion. «He made her get up». The verb egheiro (“to raise”) is the same one that the evangelists use to talk about the resurrection of Jesus. This healing is already in the Easter dynamic. It is a physical healing that attests to liberation from sin. «Taking her by the hand». This last gesture expresses his determination to free humanity from alienating situations. The saved woman opens herself to gratitude through service. This makes us understand something important: Christian diakonia is born from a freedom obtained. We are servants of Christ because we have been redeemed. In a 13th century Greek miniature preserved on Mount Athos, we see Christ coming out of the synagogue and entering Simon’s house and healing her mother-in-law by holding her right hand. The power of Kyrios, which conquered death, is already at work in him.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey