Jesus returned from the midst of the spiritual battle in the synagogue to the house of Peter, his eldest disciple, who was an inhabitant of Bethsaida (John 1:44), but subsequently dwelt with his family at Capernaum following Christ. Jesus did not ask his disciple to divorce his wife when he believed in him, but blessed all his house and filled him with the power of his Spirit.
When the dangerous fever attacked Peter’s mother-in-law who dwelt with him, both of them together with all the disciples asked Jesus to heal her. Their common faith and lowly demand moved the arm of God. Did you realize the mystery of the power of common prayer before Jesus?
Then Jesus stood over the bed of the feverish patient, took her by hand, and with a word’s speaking commanded the microbe away from her cells. The word of the Creator contains the power of excluding any disease, for wherever Christ comes, eternal life, healing, and Paradise begin. In his presence the hearts, bodies, and minds become cured. Come to Jesus with all your hardships. Commit your life to him so that his strength may be made perfect in your weakness.
Peter’s mother-in-law experienced Christ’s triumph and power, for she immediately arose with certainty and confidence, and ministered to the audience. She became the symbol of the faithful, for he who is cured by Christ in his innermost heart and is renewed, immediately becomes a servant of Christ and of all the people, just as Jesus made himself a servant of all humanity. Are a sick man, or a servant?
People raced to Peter’s house, carrying the patients on their beds, and mothers came with their children on their arms, asking Jesus to heal them with his power. Christ did not reject anyone, but put his divine, blessed hands on each of them and delivered them from the power of sickness. His healing was not magic. It was the power of God that flowed out of his merciful heart into the innermost depths of the believer.
The sun’s setting in the end of that Sabbath day granted those who were bound by the law the freedom to bring their patients to Jesus. They brought them on donkeys, carriages, and horses, for they knew that healing was at hand and given freely to everyone.
It appeared that a considerable part of the sick were not attacked by pathological microbes, but were possessed by demons. Woe to those who go to fortune-tellers, consult the dead, deal with tarot cards, buy a blue bead for protection, or decorate their cars with a heart pierced with an arrow. Such loathsome behaviors make them join themselves immediately with demons, for they believe in their effectual power. Come to Jesus, with your evil spirit and huge bonds, for he delivers you from the power of Satan, moves you into his expanses, and keeps you safe under the protection of the living God.
The demons know Jesus well. They know that he is the Son of God. This knowledge is not under question or investigation, but is a reason for their fear and trembling. Unfortunately, many people are blind to the truth of God and his Son. They know neither God, nor his Son who was born of his Spirit. They look like the blind who do not find the way leading to life, and do not give themselves up to those endowed with eyesight that may lead them into deliverance. He who sees Christ sees his Father, for the Son is one with him and is continuous in him.
Jesus rebuked the demons, so that they might not reveal his mystery that he is the true Christ, in order that they should not incite the political zeal in the multitudes, for he was willing to leave the occasion to them that they might recognize his true picture, as he had revealed to them in the synagogue of Nazareth, as an emblem to all his services. Christ built the faith of his followers not on the testimony of demons, but on his love, truth, and mercy. He delivered those who suffered from their bondage, and carried them to the freedom of the redeemed of the Lord. Did you become firm in his expanses?