The following is a true story.

During the 1950’s, a medical doctor from the United States established several health clinics down in Haiti (which was—and still is—one of the poorest countries in the world). His purpose was to bring help, hope and healing to some of the neediest people on the planet.

But this doctor and his fellow physicians ran into one unexpected problem in the midst of their outreach efforts: they sometimes couldn’t get the poor to come to their clinics! Here’s how he described the situation: "We had a shot for typhoid, dysentery, a vaccination for smallpox, polio, and measles; we would see children dying of those diseases and yet we could not convince people to come for the cure. They were afraid, they felt they did not need it, or they felt they could handle it themselves. We were so frustrated because we had the medicine and they would not come!"

Imagine that! Healing was theirs for the asking, and yet—amazingly—they stayed away.

Which brings us to today’s Gospel. There Jesus points to himself as "the Divine Physician." As we heard a few moments ago, one day, when the Pharisees saw Jesus at table with Matthew and his less-than-respectable friends, they said to our Lord’s disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus overheard them and immediately responded, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do."

Now obviously Jesus meant for us to interpret these words in a spiritual way, since we have no indication that anyone came down with food poisoning at this meal in Matthew’s house! We have every reason to believe that Matthew had a very capable cook, and that everyone left the party in good physical health!

"Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do."

Taken in a spiritual way, these words clearly referred to Matthew and his friends, who desperately needed the Divine Physician for the forgiveness of their many sins. But Jesus was also making a subtle reference to the Pharisees themselves when he said this to them. And hopefully they got the message! Spiritually speaking, they were just as "ill" as the tax collectors were—probably more so because of their pride and arrogance.

And of course, last but certainly not least, Jesus was also referring to us in this text, because we too are weak sinners in need of his transforming grace.

So what’s the bottom line? The bottom line is that everyone without exception needs the Divine Physician! But how easy it is—and how tempting it is at times—to avoid him and his "medicine," just as those Haitians avoided the doctors who came to help them and their medicines. And here’s what I find extremely interesting: the 3 reasons the doctor gave for people avoiding his clinics back in the 1950’s are the very same 3 reasons why many people avoid the Divine Physician and the "soul medicine" he offers through his mega-clinic, the Church!

Think about it, my brothers and sisters: Why did those Haitians stay away?

According to the doctor, some stayed away because they were afraid, others because they felt they didn’t need the medicine, and still others because they felt they could handle their illnesses themselves.

And so it is with Dr. Jesus!

Some stay away from the Lord completely—or they avoid coming closer to him than they already are—because they’re afraid. Fear holds them back. They’re afraid they might lose some of their friends if they get too close to Christ and too connected to his Church; or they’re afraid Jesus might ask them to "follow him" like he asked Matthew to follow him in today’s Gospel story; or they’re afraid that they might have to change their behavior too much (and give up some of their favorite sins); or they’re afraid people might call them a "Jesus freak" or a "fanatic;" or they’re afraid that Jesus can’t or won’t forgive them—thus they stay away from the healing sacrament of Confession, sometimes for many years.

In Hebrews 2 it says that the devil holds people in slavery to himself by fear—this kind of fear: the fear of coming too close to Christ, the fear of becoming "too holy."

Is this type of fear holding you back right now? If so, ask the Divine Physician to heal you and set you free!

The second reason some of those Haitians stayed away from the clinics—according to the doctor—was that they felt they didn’t need the medicine. Basically that means they refused to admit they were sick in the first place. With respect to their illnesses, they were in a state of "denial." Well the same can be true of us in the midst of our spiritual illnesses. That can very easily happen. Remember, the tax collectors and prostitutes whose lives were changed by Christ all had one thing in common: they admitted their weaknesses and sins. They moved passed their denial, accepted the fact that they needed the "medicine" Jesus was offering for their souls, and they reached out for it—which is what separated them from the proud Pharisees.

What about us? When things go wrong at school, or at work, or at home; when an argument erupts in the family, is it always somebody else’s fault? Is it always someone else’s mistake, someone else’s problem? Are we always denying our responsibility in the matter?

The most important medicine of the Divine Physician is forgiveness, which is given to us in the "operating room" known as the confessional! But if nothing is ever our fault, then obviously we will never seek—or receive—this medicine that we need.

The final reason some Haitians stayed away from the clinics—according to the doctor—was that they felt they could handle their illnesses themselves. Those in the second group denied they were sick; those in this group admitted they were ill but were convinced they could deal with their diseases on their own.

There’s one, big spiritual disease that we all share: it’s called concupiscence! Basically it means "the inclination to sin." The only remedy for concupiscence is God’s grace, his power. In this regard, we can all take a lesson from the experience of a young man I know who was arrested a while back for his involvement with drugs. Thankfully, he’s finally begun to get his life back in order. Part of his program of recovery has included regular visits to a professional counselor. I was talking to the boy’s mother the other day and she said to me, "The counselor has been telling him, ‘You need to get on your knees every morning as soon as you get out of bed, and acknowledge the fact that you can’t stay clean and on the right path without God’s help. Then you need to turn your life over to the Lord and seek his grace throughout the day. You need to get to meetings where you’ll find fellowship and support, and then at the end of the day you need to get back on your knees and thank the Lord for all he’s done for you since you got up in the morning.’"

Basically the message of that counselor has been, "Don’t think you can deal with this on your own, because you can’t! You’re weak; you’re affected by concupiscence; you need the power of God; you need the grace of the Divine Physician—or you’re not going to make it."

We may not have a drug problem, but no one’s life is problem free! Ours may be a patience problem or an anger problem or a lust problem or a gossip problem or a jealousy problem or a problem of some other kind. But regardless of what the problem might be, the remedy’s the same—and it comes from the Divine Physician.

Let me sum up my homily today in this fashion:

One Haitian said to the doctor, "I’m afraid to come to you."

The true Catholic says to the Divine Physician, "I’m not afraid to come to you. I’m not afraid of deepening my relationship with you; I’m not afraid of following you with an undivided heart, because I know you love me and that you want what’s best for me."

Another Haitian said to the doctor, "I don’t need your medicine."

The true Catholic says to the Divine Physician, "I know that I need your medicine often—especially the medicine of your forgiveness; and I’m not ashamed to ask you for it in Confession, because I know you’ll always give it to me there."

A third Haitian said to the doctor, "I can handle my illness on my own; thank you very much."