True Sickness in the House

Tomorrow's Gospel brings to light another event that happened in the life of Jesus Christ.  This amazing healing of the man with dropsy, in and of itself, is so miraculous it should bring us to faith.  What, though, is Saint Luke trying to tell us about the Pharisee and the people sitting around bearing witness to this phenomenon?  For me the clue lies in the talk that occurs after the healing.

There isn't much there about the man with dropsy for instance.  We don't know if he was a believer, standing in quiet faith waiting for Christ to heal him.   We also don't know if he was planted there by the Pharisee to try and trick Jesus into breaking the Sabbath.  Those details aren't there.  We do know this man did not ask for healing, he just stood in Jesus presence. Jesus heals him after questioning those gathered around if it were lawful.  I think by now they were wise enough not to answer at this point, knowing how Jesus had always showed them their hypocrisy.  I imagine they were scared to answer.. both in fear that they would have to face their own hypocrisy and that they might lose face in front of those gathered around.

After Jesus heals him, he sends him away.  It doesn't say if he praised God.  It doesn't say if the healed man even had faith.   Just that Jesus sent him away.  Then he addresses the real sickness in the room.  “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”   This was common practice, that if an animal fell into a well they would be free to help it out.  They were fine with this.  They understood it.  Because both their son and oxen were important to them.  It benefited them.  It was personal.  When it came to another one of God's children though, one that was not directly tied to them.. they were unwilling to reach out and give a helping hand.

The true sickness in the room was not the dropsy, though dropsy indeed is a horrible physical ailment.  The healing was to bring about an awakening.  A moment in which each person in the room would come face to face with both God, in Christ, and with their own hypocrisy.  The real sickness was their own inability to show love.  We don't know if they came to conversion.  In fact, Scripture records that they were dumbfounded, unable to answer his question.   He then continues to share some very beautiful parables about the need for both humility and reaching out that helping hand to those who cannot pay you back.

Saint Paul reminds us in the first reading that our conscience should be joined with the Holy Spirit to bear witness to the truth.  That is why it is so important for us to form our conscience properly, with God's help, and by studying the scriptures.  So what should this event above teach us?  That when avarice guides our actions, we can justify many things that we know to be wrong.   The men listening to Jesus would have justified not helping a stranger be well, because it did not help them materially or personally.  We ourselves often do the same.  How often have we seen a beggar and not helped them, because we were worried where the money was going to go?  We saw someone on the side of the road who needed help... but we were in a hurry, so we didn't stop.... Or something as simple as, we know someone needs something done... we could have done it.. but you know, there was a game on and we didn't want to miss part of it?  

That is what Jesus means for us to learn... to work on our conscience, to form it in light of the Church and it's teachings, to prayerfully seek Wisdom and guidance from the Holy Spirit... so that we never allow our own wants, our own needs to guide us to do or not do something that we know we should be doing, or know we should not be doing.   I know I fail at this.  Lord help me to grow.  Help me to get my own ego out of the way, and allow your Spirit to guide me in all things. 

In Christ,
His Servant and yours,
Brian

Division? Fire? Who is leading your life?

Jesus said to his disciples:

“I have come to set the earth on fire,

and how I wish it were already blazing! 

There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,

and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! 

Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? 

No, I tell you, but rather division. 

From now on a household of five will be divided,

three against two and two against three;

a father will be divided against his son

and a son against his father,

a mother against her daughter

and a daughter against her mother,

a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” 

This reading is the reading for today's mass for Catholics all over the world. It's a reminder to us that Jesus message is not an easy one. It divides friends, families, even nations. We see it in our own Christian walks as we meet other Christians, who are divided from us in our beliefs... all of them believing in Jesus, but finding different interpretations from those that their other brothers and sisters hold. As Jesus quoted Micah to his followers, it makes me wonder if they had any inkling of how true this statement was? How the Word expressed himself to mankind, knowing that they would divide because of their own hardness and stubbornness of heart. Something to meditate on today: Is the division I see in my life caused by a rejection of the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, God's only begotten son? Or is the hardness of my own heart the cause of some of those divisions?

The Stranger

There was a child who lived with his grandfather by the side of a busy road. One evening the grandfather and this child were outside listening to the meadowlark singing her clear, sweet song as she perched on the fence post. Suddenly they heard a commotion up the road. A crazy beggar man, with a tilt to his head and a glaze in his eye, was lurching up the lane. All the children of the town were chasing him, throwing sticks and stones. Even the dogs were nipping at his heels. As the beggar man passed the house, the grandfather could see his humiliation beneath a sheen of desperation on the man's face. The child, however, saw a chance to have some fun and joined his friends. Too old to move very fast, the grandfather could only call out to his grandson to come back. Above all the commotion, the meadowlark’s song could be heard sweet and clear. The child broke from the group and ran back to his grandfather. Together they looked at the beggar man lurching and stumbling down the road chased by children and dogs.

The grandfather, eyes glistening with tears, knelt down and wrapped his arms around the child. The child dropped the rock in his hand and touched the tear that rolled down his grandfather's cheek.

"Grandpa", he said, "what's wrong?"

"Ah, laddie," said grandfather, "would you be knowin' who that crazy beggar man was?"

"No, Grandpa," said the child.

"Well I'm not sure as I know either, lad. But did you hear the lark? The lark was singing on the fence post, she was. And do you know what she was singing? There's words to her song lad, and never forget them, for she was singin:

"Often, often, often, walks the Christ in the stranger's clothes.

Often walks the Christ in the stranger's clothes."

Two tears struck the ground, one shed from the face of the grandfather, the other from the eyes of the boy, as together they watched the King of Glory stumble down the road. Often walks the Christ in the stranger's clothes.

From the book, "The Shadow of the Cross: A Journey Through the Virtues of Celtic Spirituality."