A Homily for Nov. 24, 2024: Jesus Cures the Woman with the Crooked Back
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Today’s gospel is a step belonging to the main thread of the Gospel story of St Luke. In today’s first verse: “Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath” we find 3 words - teaches, synagogue, and sabbath - that recur throughout the Gospel of St Luke.
Indeed, successive “ sabbaths” along the way prepare the solemn last mention of the “sabbath”. When is that? “When the sabbath ended, on the first day of the week, at early dawn, the myrrh-bearing women went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared and there, they received the message: “ Jesus is not here, He is risen.”
The Gospel text of St Luke likewise progresses with repeated mentions of “teaching” on the part of Jesus. “Teaching” is mentioned at the opening of his ministry (in Luke 4.15): “He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.” Our Gospel today is a step on the way to the last
mention of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel of St Luke.
Where is the last mention of Jesus’ teaching? When is the last time that the teaching of Jesus is mentioned? I quote: After ‘Pilate had said to the chief priests and the multitudes, “I find no crime in this man.” They were urgent, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.”
"Teaching” on the part of Jesus is the motive for his condemnation to death! We like proclaiming that Jesus’ teachings are reasons to give glory to God, just like today’s crippled woman’s healing is offered by Jesus in the heart of his teaching: “When he laid his hands on her, she immediately stood up straight and began glorifying God”... and just as today’s multitude “rejoicing at all the glorious things that Jesus was doing.” But, Jesus’ teaching is the precise motive for which Jesus is put to death! Do I recognize such a potential in Jesus’ teaching. It may be less spontaneous for me to recognize that Jesus’ teaching can provoke hostility to the point of understanding that others listening to Jesus might get the idea of putting him to death. Would it be that, in the presence of Jesus’ teachings, two fundamentally opposed reactions exist in me! First his teachings are the cause for glorifying God.
Many here present have lived more than 18 years Many may have had the experience of what it is to be crippled for 18 years. For my part, in my whole life, I could have had 4 independent periods of 18 years with some form of being crippled. I can readily recognize that such a long time corresponds well with some infirmities, if not physical infirmities, at least psychological infirmities with which I have lived. And, for some of these infirmities, I clearly recall that I was freed
suddenly after such a long time of paralysis thanks to some illumination stemming from Jesus’ teaching. I think for example of persons, starting with my Dad, whom I was not ready to forgive for many years.
Suddenly liberated from this lack of forgiveness that crippled me for years, I have reason to glorify Jesus just as much as today’s crippled woman and just as much as today’s crowd. I have reason to give thanks to Jesus for seeing me a one of the poor ones of whom he can say ‘I see you as a son of Abraham!’ But, besides such identifications with longstanding crippled persons, with poor ones who have been mercifully cured by Jesus, is there not also sticking to me something of the identity of a leader of the synagogue? Synagogue, in its original Greek, simply means ‘a gathering together’.
Do I not practice, at least in thought, being ‘the leader of this or that gathering, gathering as a family or as a little group’. Do I not practice thoughts such as ‘it would be better if my preferred desert had been offered at this Sunday gathering’. In so many circumstances, do I not practice thoughts such as ‘if I was the leader in this gathering, I would do better.’ If thoughts like this are in me, if, in some way, I play the ‘leader of the synagogue’, do I hear Jesus in his teaching saying to me today: ‘You hypocrite’? ‘You hypocrite! You are putting forward your own little conception of what this Sabbath or this Sunday should be!’ ‘You hypocrite! Why are you acting as if to be the leader of this gathering?’ ‘Why are you leading others according to rules that you yourself do not follow?’
In the Gospel of Luke, to which persons does Jesus say: ‘You hypocrite’? Here it is to the leader of the synagogue. Yesterday, in the preceding chapter it was to the multitude. To the multitude Jesus said “You hypocrites, you know how to judge earth and heaven, and you do not know how to judge the present times’. In all 4 gospels the authors never give any indices for us to distinguish between the multitude that glorifies Jesus at one time and the multitude that crucifies Jesus at another time ... are these authors not talking possibly about the same multitude? Could I be a like some persons in the multitude of the gospels?
An essential part of Jesus’ teaching consists in teaching that we are inconsistent persons. Is it easy for me to hear from Jesus, who is the Truth: ‘You are an inconsistent person, you are not trustworthy’? ‘Tonight, you are going to be 3 times an inconsistent person, 3 times you are going to prove that you are not trustworthy.’ This is what Jesus taught to the first among his chosen apostles... How much can we tolerate being addressed with such a teaching?
How can I answer the message of today’s gospel? I do not see any other answer than this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner”.
I do not see any other answer, but to repeat as continually as possible:
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner”.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
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