Jesus - The Divine Physician

When a doctor diagnoses cancer, she must act decisively and immediately. Every cancer cell must be either removed through surgery, burned away through radiation or poisoned through chemotherapy. If we didn't know what the doctor was doing, we might think her cruel for cutting the patient open or for pumping chemicals into him. It's only when we realize how dangerous the situation is that we can accept how drastic and radical the cure must likewise be.

John the Baptist, when addressing the Pharisees and Sadducees in this Sunday's gospel (Mt.3:1-12) calls them a "brood of vipers" as they approach him for baptism. But, he wanted to be clear with them just what they were committing to by being baptized. "Give some evidence that you mean to reform!"

We cannot accommodate any evil in our lives, any more than the body can accommodate a little cancer. Evil destroys whomever welcomes it. So, radical surgery is indicated. "The ax is laid to the root of the tree. Every tree that is not fruitful will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

God sounds cruel here. But, like the doctor, God knows that the evil we accommodate will eventually strangle us and prevent us from bearing fruit.

Now, the doctor can only extract the malignancy. She cannot put health back into our bodies. God, on the other hand, not only roots out the evil in our heart, but replaces it with gifts for living a good and holy life. These gifts are the "gifts of the Holy Spirit" which Isaiah lists in the first reading as the mark of the Messiah (Is.11:2-3):

"a spirit of wisdom and of understanding;
a spirit of counsel and of strength;
a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord;
and his delight will be the fear of the Lord."


We receive these gifts through our baptism and confirmation which are the "baptism with fire" which John the Baptist foretold that the Messiah would grant to all those who believed in him. When we make use of those gifts in our lives, then we bear the "fruit of the Spirit" which Paul describes in Galatians 5:22:

"the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."


These are the fruits which God looks for in those who follow Jesus. These are the fruits which will spring up in us once sin is uprooted from our hearts, and Jesus replaces them with His gifts.

Jesus is often called the Divine Physician because of His power to heal and to free us from our sins. Saint Augustine in his Confessions puts it in a beautiful way:

"My weaknesses are many and grave, many and grave
indeed, but more abundant still is your medicine."

These weeks leading up to Christmas are a time to uproot whatever is not of God and to recognize that no good can come from allowing sin and evil a place in our lives. It is a time to turn to our Divine Physician, Jesus, for the radical surgery only He can perform. And so, the coming of Jesus will be not a historical fact of the past or a long off, future anticipation, but an everyday event bearing fruit in our lives.