Anxiety, Grief and Healing

In the text from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today we share the anxiety and grief of parents over the well being of their children.

From http://revchrisroth.blogspot.ca/2012/08/2-samuel-18-new-internationalversion.html

The passage from the Second Book of Samuel takes us to the unconsolable state of David as he mourns the death of his son Absalom.

The king was shaken, and went up to the room over the city gate and wept. He said as he wept, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!”

In the Gospel from Mark, the response of Jesus to the synagogue leader whose daughter is dying is interrupted by the healing of a woman separated by her condition from her community for fourteen years.

* [5:28] Both in the case of Jairus and his daughter (Mk 5:23) and in the case of the hemorrhage victim, the inner conviction that physical contact (Mk 5:30) accompanied by faith in Jesus’ saving power could effect a cure was rewarded.

Edward Morse reflects on our encounter with events that have no entry in our personal database to provide answers.

I am left with these questions:  how do we need to adjust our thinking to leave room for the work of God among us?  And perhaps more importantly, how do we make time to perceive how those works are affecting us?  I think we may need more love and mercy – and patience -- while we change our personal database and analytical approach.   Thanks be to God

Don Schwager quotes Peter Chrysologus, 400-450 AD, a renowned preacher and bishop of Ravena in the 5th century, on the the long-suffering of parents.

"Let us, if it is pleasing to you, speak for a moment of the pains and anxieties which parents take upon themselves and endure in patience out of love and affection for their children. Here, surrounded by her family and by the sympathy and affection of her relations, a daughter lies upon her bed of suffering. She is fading in body. Her father's mind and spirit are worn with grief. She is suffering the inward pangs of her sickness. He, unwashed, unkempt, is absorbed wholly in sorrow. He suffers and endures before the eyes of the world. She is sinking into the quiet of death... Alas! why are children indifferent to these things! Why are they not mindful of them? Why are they not eager to make a return to their parents for them? But the love of parents goes on nevertheless; and whatever parents bestow upon their children, God, the parent of us all, will duly repay." (excerpt from SERMON 33.2)

A TIME interview marks the 25th anniversary of When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Rabbi Harold Kushner, asking the author; What about that book gave it such strong resonance?

Kushner: It makes people feel better. It doesn't explain, it comforts. This is what people in times of difficulty need. They need consolation, not explanation. Too many books, especially ones written before mine, didn't understand that. They try to tell people why it isn't so terrible. People want a book that says it is terrible, but you can handle it. That's the first reason. The second reason is my own personal family experiences gave me the right to write that book, the authenticity. People have to listen to it because I've been there

Friar Jude Winkler comments on David mourning over Absalom and his fixation on a lamentation turning a day of victory to day of mourning. He notes that the apparent confusion of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark in absent in the account of Luke who portrays Christ as a philosopher omitting His very human characteristics.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, connects to admission that we are sometimes powerless as he explores Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit from Jesus Sermon on the Mount.

“Poor in spirit” means an inner emptiness and humility, a beginner’s mind, and to live without a need for personal righteousness or reputation. It is the “powerlessness” of Alcoholics Anonymous’ First Step. The Greek word Matthew uses for “poor” is ptochoi, which literally means, “the very empty ones, those who are crouching.” They are the bent-over beggars, the little nobodies of this world who have nothing left, who aren’t self-preoccupied or full of themselves in any way. Jesus is saying: “Happy are you, you’re the freest of all.”

Deep loss is a theme in the texts today. It connects with our lives. We need consolation where there is no explanation.

References




(n.d.). 2 Samuel, chapter 19 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/2samuel/19

(n.d.). Mark, chapter 5 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/5

(n.d.). Creighton University's Online Ministries. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html

(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

(2006, October 12). Q & A: Rabbi Harold Kushner - TIME. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1545682,00.html

(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/

(2012, August 12). Rev Chris Roth: the love of the father- 2 Sam 18- David and Absalom-. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from http://revchrisroth.blogspot.com/2012/08/2-samuel-18-new-internationalversion.html