Standing tall

“And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.” Lk 13:11

Every time I read this passage, I think of my mother. In the last years of her life mom had dozens of spinal fractures, all of which caused her pain and difficulty in standing erect. A back brace helped, but often she would have to sit or lie down to get any relief. At the same time, her spinal osteoporosis did not slow her down. Mom was too interested in life to let something as simple as back pain stop her.

The woman in today’s passage from the gospel of Luke seems much like mom. Despite being bent over, she is in the synagogue listening, learning, and hoping. No doubt some judged her and thought she was possessed by an evil spirit, but she was not deterred. Like so many others who had heard about Jesus she wanted to be near him, and perhaps even be healed. Imagine her joy when the Lord said to her, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” Lk 13:12 I can imagine her walking out of the synagogue after 18 years standing very tall, looking all in the eye and asking everyone she saw what they thought of her now.

But the leader of the synagogue doesn’t care about the bent over woman at all. Rather, he senses an opportunity to discredit Jesus and pounces on the crowd saying, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the Sabbath day.” Lk 13:14 How this man could reduce Jesus’ healing power to “work” is incomprehensible to us reading 2000 years after the event. A woman, broken for 18 years, is standing erect and free again, but he can only see a violation of the Sabbath.

The role reversal is complete. Although the synagogue leader seems to be standing erect, in fact he has become the bent over woman. Unable to look anyone in the eye, seeing only the dark side of life, he tries to parse the law in a way that undermines the compassion of Jesus. That Jesus chose to “save the woman’s life”; a perfectly sane and acceptable interpretation of the Torah, by allowing her to stand erect again made perfect sense to everyone present but not to the leader of the synagogue. How sad for him.

The lesson for us is clear. Stand erect. Look around you at the glory of God. Reach out for those who are broken. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Do whatever it takes to save lives for the sake of the Gospel.

Today, ask to see clearly whatever or whomever is in front of you. And pray not to look away from the needy, but to help those bent over by poverty, sin or despair.

Acknowledging our Faults

“Whoever teaches something different….is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes. From these come envy, rivalry, insults, evil suspicions, and mutual friction.” (1 Tim 6:2-3) 

Paul’s very direct words to Timothy in today’s reading hit me between the eyes.  How often after silly “arguments and verbal disputes,” did “envy, rivalry, insults and friction” come into my own life and the life of our Capuchin fraternity.  Though these disputes are natural, even necessary, and come to most of us and probably every community, group, business and church, they came be death dealing unless we address them with a gospel integrity and forthrightness, beginning with ourselves.

Today, therefore a good examination of conscience is in order, not to foster guilt within or among us, but to honestly acknowledge our own faults and to ask for the grace to address them.  Recently, everything inside me urges quiet, something I enjoy on my own terms, but the call I hear is to be quieter in the larger world of my fraternity and our church.  This is ironic, of course, since I have just been assigned to our preaching team. Nevertheless, the sense of not having to express every thought I have and win every argument is very strong.  

  

Furthermore, a communal path to reconciliation is also necessary for the church.  The time seems long past when a bishop or a pastor can simply decree that arguments stop.  In a world in which almost every word we utter is public property, a method or path of reconciliation for the church as a whole seems essential. The scandal of Christians fighting with one another who have as St Paul says, “a morbid disposition for arguments,” is not only counterproductive internally, it impedes the announcing of the Good News and God’s reign.