Coming For Healing

Cum venisset, inquit, Jesus in domum Petri, vidit socrum ejus jacentem et febrientem. Videtis quae res ad domum Petri invitaverit Christum: utique non discumbendi voluptas, sed jacentis infirmitas; non prandendi necessitas, sed salutis occasio; divinae virtutis opus, non humani pompa convivii. In domo Petri non vina, sed lacrymae fundebantur: turbabat ibi familiam non cura convivii, sed cura languentis: febris ibi, non edacitas aestuabat. Unde illuc Christus non epulas percepturus, sed vitam redditurus intravit. Deus quaerit homines, non humana; coelestia dare cupit, non concupiscit invenire terrena: Christus ergo recepturus nos, non nostra quaesiturus advenit. Cum venisset, inquit, in domum Petri, vidit socrum ejus jacentem et febrientem. Ingressus in domum Petri Christus ad quod venerat, vidit: non aspexit qualitatem domus, non occurrentium turbas, non salutantium pompam, non familiae concursum; certe non ipsum praeparationis ornatum, sed inspexit gemitum languentis, febrientis attendit incendium. Vidit periculum desperatae, et statim manus ad opus suae deitatis extendit: nec ante ad humana discubuit Christus, quam mulier quae jacebat consurgeret ad divina. Sanctus Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo XVIII, De Socru Petri infirma et sanata Source: Migne PL 52.246b-c

'When Jesus had come,' it says, 'to Peter's house, He saw his mother in law lying in bed with a fever.' 1 See what moved Christ to enter Peter's house. Certainly it was not the pleasure of reclining but the sickness of the one cast down. It was not the need to eat, but the occasion for restoration. It was for a work of Divine power, not for the pomp of human feasting. In Peter's house it was not wine but tears that were flowing. There the family was not fussing over a banquet, but over the one who lay ill. There a fever, not gluttony, was blazing. So Christ did not enter to take a meal, but to restore life. God seeks men, not the things of men. He desires to give heavenly things, He does not long for the things of the world. So Christ came to retrieve us, not to acquire what is ours. When He had come, it says, to Peter's house, He saw his mother in law lying in bed with a fever. Entering into Peter's house Christ saw why He had come. He did not attend to the quality of the house, nor the crowd coming to meet him, nor to the pomp of greetings, nor to the family members around Him, and certainly not to the elaborateness of the preparations, but He looked on the groaning of the one who was sick. He attended to the fire of her fever, He saw how desperate her plight was and immediately He stretched out His hand for the work of His Divinity. Christ did not recline for human sustenance until the woman who was lying prostrate rose up for Divine purposes. Saint Peter Chrysologus, from Sermon 18, On the Sickness and Healing of Peter's Mother in Law 1 Mt 8.14