Why do bad things happen to good people?
That's the question that leaps out from the Gospel. It's not about healing, as we might initially suspect. The First Reading points out the early notion that suffering is for the sinful. Meanwhile, the Gospel points out that a good person suffers also.
So what's the answer to the question? (You'll hate me for this!)
It's not the right question to begin with!
The fact is that things happen to people. Period. The qualifications we put on "good" and "bad" are really our own subjective judgments, which--by the way--are often quite wrong.
Things happen for God's mercy to be manifest. It was manifest in the Gospel through healing. It was manifest in the First Reading to bring about greater freedom for Israel. God's mercy in both places.
Things happen; God can make them occasions of grace.
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