COME UP HERE BEFORE US
Once I brought a group of dirty-looking altar servers to a
fast-food chain. They were all sweaty and smelly after a game of basketball, on
top of the fact that the clothes on their backs betrayed where they came from —
the poorer side of town. The guards on duty went immediately on alert. They
looked at them suspiciously and watched their every move, ready to do what they
were probably instructed to do — send them away. When I told them to come over
to my side, they relaxed. They knew then that they were legitimate “customers”
after all.
This is the nth time in a row
when Pharisees, the ultimate “contravida” in the running account of
Mark, behave exactly like those guards who were ever on the lookout for a
misstep, a mistake, a wrong move on the part of the Lord, who entered the
synagogue. The setting was perfect; the scenario complete. Then in comes Jesus
to the synagogue. The camera pans over to the man with a withered hand. The
eagle-eyed Pharisees were not about to miss a beat. This was a perfect situation
of entrapment.
But then the Lord spoke — the
precise moment that they were watching out for. The snare is laid, the trap is
in place, and the Lord, who did not care about movie scenarios, scripts and
snares, did what He would normally do. He told the sick man, “Come up here
before us.”
One thing that impresses me
about many sick people is their deep faith and even deeper storehouse of hope.
After my Masses everywhere, they come up before me and tell me how sick they
are, but how hopeful as well. Some of them take my hand and bring it to the
sick part of their bodies, asking me to touch them and bless them.
I am convicted today by the
Lord, who tells the sick man, unmindful of the many digicams brought by
suspicious Pharisees, “Come up here before us,” and healed him. Christ did the
right thing, not the expected thing. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB
REFLECTION QUESTION: How do you treat the people who don’t belong
to your class?
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