A Reflection for Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
"Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,
teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness.
"Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.”
I have heard mental illness described as a solitary battle often fought in darkness. I've watched some of my own students struggle with depression and addiction. I had one succumb to suicide.
In today's first reading, Jacob wrestles with a mysterious presence he does not recognize as divine. Throughout the long night they struggle, neither yielding, until at last Jacob prevails but only after sustaining a serious injury. Jacob asks for, and receives, not only God's blessing, but a new name, Israel.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus cures a demoniac, a miraculous healing manifested in the man's renewed ability to speak. With his speech restored, the man gains the ability to communicate effectively and rejoins society as a fully functioning member.
At first glance, we see that these two stories share a common connection to mental illness. Jacob wrestling through the long night against forces he does not recognize is comparable to the daily battle waged by many against the mysterious forces of mental illness. Jesus, in turn, battles with the demons possessing an anonymous man. Thankfully, so much more is known about mental illness today than in Jesus' time. I sometimes tell my students that there are demoniacs among us today. They are the dirty, disheveled, unhoused people we see wandering our streets, perhaps "off their meds," talking to themselves or to no one at all. They are possessed not by evil spirits but by those demons treated only with proper medical attention. They are a population deemed as "untouchable" today as they were in first century Palestine.
The mental health crisis in this country is a national embarrassment. Psychiatric units and hospitals are closing across the country, reducing the number of available beds and clinics needed to treat mental health issues ranging from addiction to schizophrenia. The largest single payer of mental health services in the United States is Medicaid. Cuts to Medicaid currently under consideration will only aggravate the problem. These cuts will mean greater numbers of mentally ill persons in crisis on our nation's streets, resulting in more encounters, not with a compassionate Christ, but with police officers ill-prepared to deal with them. While mental illness is evident in today's readings, there is a challenge for us to consider.
Jesus and Jacob represent mirror images. Jacob fights God. Jesus fights evil. Jacob wins but not without being injured and diminished. Jesus wins too. The demoniac is freed from his tormentors and made whole. Jacob ends up with a limp. Jesus will end up dying on a cross. Both are blessed by God.
What are we willing to endure while taking on the suffering of others? "The harvest is abundant," we are told, "but the laborers are few." There is much work to be done. Unhoused to be sheltered, hungry to be fed, oppressed to be defended and sick to be cared for.
Jesus asks each and every one of us to take on the task. It is our Christian imperative to respond to the call of our Savior to "send out laborers for his harvest." If not us, who? If not now, when? We are the laborers called by God to spread God's love in ways great and small. As Jacob experienced, the struggle may not always be easy. Sometimes the work requires taking unpopular positions.
In 2017, Superior General Arturo Sosa, S.J., called for the building of bridges in the service of reconciliation and justice. “We know that the task of building bridges, or of ‘being bridges’ in contexts of conflict, means being stepped on by both sides of the fight. That is the price of our service and, as we try and follow Jesus’ example, we’re ready to pay it.”
Being a bridge means sometimes being stepped on by both sides. Being stepped on is the price to be paid, as it was paid by Jacob and paid by Jesus.
The work of bringing about God's kingdom is neither quick nor easy. But it is necessary. The significance of Jacob's story is not his opponent. It is his perseverance. That is what earned him God's favor. Jacob wrestled through the long night and was blessed. If we struggle, with love, with patience, with determination and courage, God's kingdom will be made real and present. The harvest will be brought in—in our time. May we, too, struggle mightily like Jacob, and be similarly blessed.
