'Give her something to eat.' Sunday Reflections, 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Montmartre, Paris

[Wikipedia; photo]

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

June is the month of the

Sacred Heart of Jesus

 

Raising of the Daughter of Jairus

Paolo Veronese [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 5:21-43 [or 5:21-24, 35b-43] (English Standard Version)

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” And he went with him.

[And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”]

While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital, May 1889

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

Lyn was someone I met when she was about 15. Three years later, when she was only halfway through her four-year college course, she quit to marry Roberto. (I’m not using their real names). Lyn was madly in love with Roberto, who had a good job and came from a relatively wealthy family.  Lyn’s family could not be described as poor either. I celebrated their wedding Mass and attended the reception in a classy hotel. In the Philippines traditionally it’s the groom’s father who pays for the reception. The young couple went to live in Manila, where Roberto was from. About a year later a daughter, whom I’ll call Gloria, was born. She had a learning disability. Another daughter, ‘Gabriela’, arrived a year or two later.

Then tragedy struck. Roberto discovered that his kidneys weren’t functioning properly and that he needed dialysis. Over the next couple of years Roberto and Lyn spent practically all they had on this and it ended in Roberto’s death. Meanwhile, Lyn’s parents both had serious illnesses and had to spend most of their resources on treatment.

Lyn returned to her own city with her two young daughters. She couldn’t find a job and had no qualifications since she hadn’t finished in college. With much embarrassment she came to see me and asked if I could give her a monthly ‘allowance’. She was able to survive the next few years with help from her siblings and friends and eventually remarried.

I’ve met so many ‘Lyns’ in the Philippines who are like the woman in today’s gospel, who have spent all their resources on doctors and medicine and are still sick. I’ve met families who have pawned their little bit of land in order to enable an aged parent to have surgery that ultimately leaves the whole family impoverished and the person on whom  they had spent the money, out of a perhaps misplaced love, ending up in the cemetery.

Most Filipinos have little access to good health care. Even those who have government health insurance have to come up with ready cash if they go to hospital, unlike in Ireland or the United Kingdom. They are eventually reimbursed but have to pay interest on money they have borrowed in the meantime. (I don't know if that system has changed in any way since I left the Philippines in 2017). I’ve heard people in Ireland and in the UK complain about poor health services. Some complaints are indeed justified but my own family’s experiences during the last few years has shown me how outstanding medical and social services in Ireland are. I have also heard many unsolicited words of praise for nurses from the Philippines working in hospitals in the UK and Ireland. 

But the sad reality is that most of these nurses, if they were still in the Philippines, would not have access to the kind of care they provide in Ireland and the UK. They would be like the woman in the gospel.

I met a Filipina in Reykjavík in 2000 who told me that she had had a kidney transplant in Denmark, paid for by the taxpayers of Iceland, a country of only 400,000 people or so. Had she been at home she would probably have ended up like Roberto.

Thirty-one years ago in a parish in Mindanao I buried Eileen, like the daughter of Jairus,  a 12-year-old. Again, poverty was a significant factor in her illness and death, despite the efforts of the doctors and nurses in the small government hospital where she died.

So the two stories interwoven by St Mark are stories that many have lived or are living, and not only in the Philippines.

But sometimes persons do experience healing in unexpected ways. I once gave a recollection day to a group of 11- and 12-year old children in a Catholic school in Cebu City. We reflected on the story of Jesus staying behind in the Temple when he was 12 and that of the daughter of Jairus, also 12. Before the afternoon session a group of the boys and girls came to tell me that Maria, one of their classmates, had a bad toothache and asked if we could pray with her. Maybe Jesus would heal her as he had healed ‘Talitha’, which they thought was the name of the daughter of Jairus. We prayed with Maria – and her toothache disappeared. The children were delighted.

St Mark gives us illustrations of the humanity of Jesus more than do St Matthew and St Luke when they recount the same stories. Scholars tell us that St Mark’s was the first gospel to be written and that the other two drew on his in writing theirs. St Matthew omits the detail of Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him. This shows us that Jesus wasn’t a ‘magician’. When he healed a sick person he gave of himself.

St Matthew leaves out another beautiful detail about the humanity of our Saviour. Jesus says to the people in the house, Give her something to eat. I can imagine the joy of everyone, including Jesus. I picture him with a smile on his face, a smile that reflects his joy – and his awareness that the girl’s family had forgotten the very practical detail that she was starving, as is anyone who has come through a serious illness. This detail of St Mark brings home to me the great reality that St John expressed in his gospel and that we pray in the Angelus, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

Dios de Amores

Ecuadorian hymn to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Text: Aurelio Espinosa Polit SJ; Music: Belisario Peña; Sung by Harpa Dei.

Ecuador was the first country to be consecrated to the Sacred Heart. This hymn was written in the context of an increase in crime in the country. One can pray for one's own country while listening to the hymn, which has subtitles in English. The singers are siblings.

Traditional Latin Mass

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 06-30-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: Romans 6:3-11. Gospel: Mark 8:1-9.

A Workman's Meal-break

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

And they ate, and were satisfied (Mark 8:8; Gospel)

'By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.' Sunday Reflections, 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C

Father (later Bishop) Edward Galvin  

Co-founder of the Columbans (1882-1956)

Photo taken in China between 1912 and early 1916

Fr John Blowick

Co-founder of the Columbans (1888-1972)

Photo taken around 1913, the year of his ordination

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

               

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel John 13:31-33a, 34-35 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Frs Owen McPolin, John Blowick, Edward Galvin 
China 1920

On the evening of 29 January 1918 an extraordinary event took place in Dalgan Park, Shrule, a remote village on the borders of County Mayo and County Galway in the west of Ireland. At the time Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, which was engaged in the Great War. Thousands of Irishmen were fighting in the trenches in France and Belgium. Many, including my great-uncle Corporal Lawrence Dowd, never came home. There was a movement for independence in Ireland that led to the outbreak of guerrilla warfare in Ireland later in 1918. There was widespread poverty in the country, particularly acute in the cities.

Despite all of that, on 10 October 1916 the Irish bishops gave permission to two young diocesan priests, Fr Edward J. Galvin and Fr John Blowick to have a national collection so that they could open a seminary that would prepare young Irish priests to go to China. The effort was called the Maynooth Mission to China, because Maynooth, west of Dublin, is where St Patrick's National Seminary is, where Fr Galvin had been ordained in 1909 and Fr Blowick in 1913.

The seminary opened that late winter's evening with 19 students and seven priests. Many of the students were at different stages of their formation in Maynooth but transferred. The seven priests belonged to different dioceses but threw in their lot with this new venture which, on 29 June 1918, would become the Society of St Columban.

This Sunday's gospel was part of what the new group reflected on as they gathered in the makeshift chapel in Dalgan Park, the name of the 'Big House' and the land on which it was built. Among the seven priests was Fr John Heneghan, a priest from the Archdiocese of Tuam, as was Fr Blowick, and a classmate of Fr Galvin. Fr Heneghan never imagined that despite his desire to be a missionary in China he would spend many years in Ireland itself teaching the seminarians and editing the Columban magazine The Far East. But his dream was to take him to the Philippines in 1931 and to torture and death at the hands of Japanese soldiers during the Battle of Manila in February 1945, when 100,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed and most of the old city destroyed.

Fr John Blowick emphasised the centrality of the words of Jesus in this Sunday's gospel, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. The second sentence there was written into the Constitutions of the Society, drawn up the following year.

To this particular Columban these words of Jesus from the Gospel of St John are the greatest legacy of Fr John Blowick to the many men from different countries who have shared his dream and that of Bishop Galvin to this day. 

And not only men, but women too, as Columban Sisters and as Columban Lay Missionaries. 

The Society of St Columban was born in the middle of the First World War because of the vision of two young men who saw beyond that awful reality and who took Jesus at his word. Down the years Columbans have lived through wars, in remote areas where their lives and the lives of the people they served were often in danger. Some have been kidnapped and not all of those survived. Among those who did was Fr Michael Sinnott, kidnapped in the southern Philippines in October 2009 when he was 79 and released safely a month later on 12 November.

Fr Michael Sinnott in Manila on the day of his release

With his sisters, Mrs Aine Kenny, left, and Mrs Kathleen O'Neill, right, at Dublin Airport, 3 December 2009

Father John Blowick's insistence on the words of Jesus in this Sunday's gospel becoming part of the very fibre of the being of Columbans sustained Fr John Heneghan, Fr Patrick Kelly, Fr Joseph Monaghan and Fr Peter Fallon, as Japanese soldiers took them away from Malate Church, Manila, on 10 February 1945, and their companion Fr John Lalor who was working in a makeshift hospital nearby who with others was killed there by a bomb three days later. 

Frs Lalor, Kelly, Francis Vernon Douglas, Fallon, Monaghan and Heneghan

Fr Douglas died, most probably on 27 July 1943,  after being tortured  by the Japanese in Paete, Laguna.

The words By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another are not only the hallmark of Columbans but of countless other groups, of countless families. They are meant to be the hallmark of every Christian.

First group of Columban priests [Names]

Fr John Blowick accompanied the first group of Columbans to China in 1920 but didn't stay there as he was needed in Ireland as Superior General and as a teacher in the seminary. 

Earthquake in Ecuador, 16 April 2017

In Memory of Sister Clare

Sr Clare Crockett, from Derry, Northern Ireland, died in the 7.8 earthquake that hit Ecuador last Saturday, 16 April at 7pm local time. She was 33. The death toll as I write this on 21 April is at least 570. Five postulants - young women preparing to be religious sisters - died along with Sister Clare. The video above is from the website of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother Congregation to which Sister Clare belonged.

The young Clare Crockett was no angel. Her own words: 'I liked to party a lot. My weekends, since I was 16-17, consisted in getting drunk with my friends. I wasted all my money on alcohol and cigarettes.'

Before the age of 18 when she pledged to a life of servitude, Sister Clare has aspirations to be an actress. She joined an agency, presented television shows and even had a small part in a movie.

A self-confessed party animal she signed up for what she thought was a free trip to Spain only for her to later realise it was for a pilgrimage during Holy Week. It was during this trip that she realised the Grace of God and realised she had to change her ways. [Belfast Telegraph]

I thank God for the patience that He has had with me, and still has!!!! I do not ask Him why He has chosen me, I just accept it. I depend totally on Him and Our Blessed Mother and I ask them to give me the grace to be whatever they want me to be. [Sister Clare, quoted in Belfast Telegraph]

The Five postulants who died

[Source of photos]

When I entered as a sister in the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother I did so to dedicate my life to God and I knew that by entering into a religious community I was putting my life totally in his hands. And therefore I had to be open to whatever the Lord asked of me. So when I was told that I was going to go to Ecuador to do missionary work, then I put my life in God's hands and I totally accepted it. [Sister Clare, video 2:07 - 2:32]

Our life is completely safe in the hands of Jesus and the Father, Who are one, one love, one mercy, revealed once and for all in the sacrifice of the Cross. To save the lost sheep that is all of us, the Pastor became Lamb and let Himself be sacrificed to take upon Himself, and take away, the sin of the world. [Pope Francis, 17 April 2016]

Pope Francis arriving in Ecuador on 5 July 2015

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Strong Pro-life Statement from Doctors in Ecuador

I came across this on Fr Tim Finigan's blog but the source is a report by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman of LifeSiteNews.com.

Here is the full text, translated from the original Spanish by Matthew Hoffman, of the statement by the Ecuadorian Federation of Societies of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Federación Ecuatoriana de Sociedades de Ginecología y Obstetricia (FESGO). It can be found, with the original Spanish text, here. I have highlighted some parts of it.

The 15 Conclusions of the Workshop on the Prevention of Abortion

Ecuadorian Federation of Societies of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FESGO) April 17, 2008

Enrique Sotomayor Hospital, Guyaquil, Ecuador

Translated by Matthew Hoffman

1. The members of the Ecuadorian Federation of Societies of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FESGO) are not in agreement with any form of induced abortion; life is inviolable from the moment of conception. The elimination of an innocent human being is always unacceptable, ethically and medically speaking.

2. We are against induced abortion because it is not only an illegal act, but a criminal one, as is established in the Ecuadorian Penal Code in Chapter VI entitled "Crimes Against Life", articles 441 through 446. Under no circumstances should abortion be decriminalized in Ecuador. To the contrary, policies and strategies must be established to strengthen moral values and defend the basic principles of universal bioethics pronounced by FESGO.

3. Science teaches that human life begins at conception. If it is also true that it is affirmed by religion, it does not for that reason cease to be a strictly scientific truth, to be transformed into a religious opinion. He who denies that human life begins with conception does not need to contend with religion, but science. To deny this certainty of biology is not to express a lack of faith, but a lack of basic knowledge of human genetics, something that is even known by the general public.

4. From the moment that the ovum is fertilized, a new life is begun that is not part of the father, nor of the mother, but rather a new human being that develops autonomously. Further, something so important is at stake that, from the point of view of moral obligation, the mere probability of the existence of a person is sufficient to justify the absolute prohibition of any intervention made for the purpose of eliminating a human embryo. Human beings must be respected and treated as persons from the instant of their conception and, for that reason, from that same moment the rights of the person must be respected, principally the inviolable right to life of every innocent human being. Human life must be respected from its conception, without exceptions.

To affirm that the woman can do with her body whatever she wishes, besides being a conceited claim, has absolutely no basis in science: the embryo is not part of the body of the mother, nor is the fetus an internal organ of her body: the DNA of the embryo is distinct from that of its parents.

5. Human life must be respected from the instant of conception, during all of the stages through which the human person passes, until its natural death, no matter what name is given to the new human person: zygote, morula, blastocyst, embryo, fetus, neonate, infant, adolescent, adult, elderly, terminally ill...all are only names for the same, unique human person in the distinct stages of development through which he is passing.

6. The inviolable ethical principle, universally valid (in time and in space), according to which "the ends do not justify the means", is also valid in medicine, even when serious problems arise, be they surgical, economic/social, familial, or generally human ones. It is not possible to prevent so-called "unsafe abortion" by promoting "safe abortion". Causing abortions in order to avoid abortions is as contradictory as combating death by causing death, or eliminating illness by killing those who are ill. Let us never forget that the doctor who is faced with a pregnant woman is in the presence of two patients.

7. Because doctors are also human, there are moments in medical practice in which health professionals might not know how to resolve the problems of a particular pregnancy, but we do know what not to do: to directly kill the child, making ourselves the owners and lords of life and death. Physicians are agents of life and not ambassadors of death.

8. The most effective strategy for preventing and avoiding abortion is moral and ethical education, above all among adolescents and young people, and support for women. Particularly, this instruction must be imparted in classes related to the value of life, sexuality, love, marriage, and family. It is not sufficient to give biological, physiological, and anatomical information regarding the human body, if instruction is not also given in values, in such a way that new generations adopt a responsible, orderly, and proper attitude to sexuality and procreative functions.

9. To prevent and avoid all types of abortion, with its terrible physical, psychological, and moral consequences, as well as those relating to conscience, it is essential that the pregnant woman does not feel alone, but rather that she feels supported with regard to the new life that lives within her. This support should come from the father of the child, her family, her social and work environments, religious institutions, and health professionals. Abortion is often a problem of isolation and, what is worse, of harmful influences.

10. Let us not forget that the second victim of the crime of abortion is the mother who obtains the abortion. Modern psychiatry and psychology have created the term Post-Abortion Syndrome. It is important to understand that it is easier for a woman to remove her child from her womb than from her mind and her heart.

11. Regarding abortion in cases of rape, the rapist should be punished, not the innocent child, fruit of the criminal act. If the woman who is raped obtains an abortion, in the first place, she causes irreparable damage to herself, because she is deprived of the best "psychological treatment" available to her, which is to live out her maternal instinct, caring for her child with love. It may be said that the psychological well-being of a woman who has been raped is being carried in her own womb. In the second place, if she has an abortion, not only will she not be freed from the trauma caused by the rape (it is one thing to eliminate the fruit of the rape and another to eliminate the trauma of the rape) but instead a new and more devastating trauma is created, that of having killed her own child. Adoption by a third party is a humanitarian strategy of unquestionable value.

12. Sometimes, doctors find themselves in a conflict between the life of the mother and the life of her child. In such situations the expression "therapeutic abortion" has been devised to refer to the interruption of the life of the child to save the life of the mother. However, the phrase "therapeutic abortion" as a simple expression, is unfortunate, because if we stop at the meaning of "therapeutic" it is synonymous with "cure", which implies that the surgeon may kill the child with the purpose of saving the mother, when in fact neither the life of the mother nor that of her child can be directly ended. Doctors may never kill.

13. In such cases the doctor may act according to the principle of the "double effect", which establishes the following. Surgical interventions from which follow two effects, one good (saving the life of the child or that of the mother) and another bad (the death of one of them) are ethical providing that the following five conditions are met:
1. That the purpose of the surgeon is to obtain a good effect (to save the life of mother or child) and is limited to permitting or tolerating the bad (the death of one of the two). 2. That the death is not intended, whether as a goal or as a means, even if it is foreseen as an inevitable consequence. 3. That the first and immediate effect being sought by the surgeon is to save one of the two lives and the death of one of them is tolerated with disgust or displeasure, and never desired. 4. That there exists a proportionately gave reason to act (the urgency of the operation). 5. That, under the circumstances, there exist no other effective means to save both lives.

14. In the case of a rape of a mentally disabled woman, the solution is not to kill the child, but to help the woman to continue the pregnancy to term, and once the baby has been born, he can given up for adoption. In a complementary fashion, we request that the authority in charge of adoptions facilitate them, avoiding by every means the corrupt management of adoption processes in which business and the enrichment of the parties involved take first place.

15. It is important to emphasize that the result of this workshop, given the scientific and moral quality of the Ecuadorian Federation of Societies of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FESGO) and of the content of the presentations and of these conclusions, should serve to instruct the whole country and will be a very important point of reference for every agency, including the highest levels of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government constituted in Ecuador.