Unbent

       Many years ago in my local parish we had a man who was very much like every other family man in our parish. He came with his spouse to church on certain Sundays when time permitted and he gave occasionally and usually ( on his own admission ) what was in his pocket. As life had it, this man was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. His prospects looked dim and he came to church to ask for help both from God and his community.  This man had a moment of conversion. He realized that he was coming to the table to ask when he most often came to take and offer little.  His life turned around and he became quite the giver. He still knew his time was quite limited but he decided in church on that particular day to make changes in his own life, such as he could.  He was the cheerful giver we often associate with the reformed Scrooge, not that he was ever a true miser.  His was  souls renewed in every sense and this perhaps was his best medicine as he offered more, took less, and physically has lived longer than almost anyone with the wretched disease. Go figure.

        Sometimes we are bent over and unable to see like the woman in today's passage.  For each us the cause of our 'bentness' is different but the result is similar. Our faith is often warped and our view of the world around us is also similarly warped.  When we come to God, it makes no difference when we come or at what hour. Perhaps even our intent may be selfish. Who are we to judge? What matters is a pure heart in our intent to turn to God. We can do everything we can physically or mentally, doctors and doctors and therapists galore all are good courses of action but the final and ultimate cure is from God and God always welcomes us. No matter what time or what place but perhaps the best is in our houses of worship - the thin places where we can experience God's full measure, where we should feel God's full measure of love. That is what the bent woman experienced and Jesus is indignant if not justifiably angry that anyone, especially a religious elite should minimize or demonize such a loving gesture by God. Curing the woman on the Sabbath ? Of course ! What better day is there!

       I am reminded of the prodigal son who is welcomed home. God always welcomes us home, no matter the circumstances, no matter what we may have done or what is wrong, God always, lovingly and with open arms, welcomes us. 

Luke 13:10-17

 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.’ But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?’ When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.