Homily

It's the Sabbath day, and Jesus is teaching in the synagogue when a woman comes by who is stooped over. It's not a fatal infirmity. She has had this condition for 18 years and likely she could carry on for another 18 years and more after that. But it bothers Jesus to see this poor woman suffering from this problem. Jesus puts His hands on her and immediately she stands up straight and glorifies God. Luke tells us that an evil spirit was the cause of this woman's suffering and we are certainly meant to think of that image of her, bent over, stooped, pushed down by Satan so that she can't even lift her eyes to heaven and pray. She represents the hold that Satan can have on humanity, a power that Jesus came to free us from. It's not that Satan no longer has any power to cripple or destroy the lives of people today, but for all those who have put on Christ in holy baptism, we can always be freed from the power of Satan whenever he tries to exert his influence over us.

For the people in Jesus' day, many illnesses and problems were tied to the work of Satan, or as the result of sin and thus God's judgment. Remember the man born blind? People wanted to know if it was his sin or his parents' that caused him to be suffering the lack of sight, and of course, Jesus says neither case is the reason, but rather so that the works of God might be made visible through him. So, too with the crippled woman in today's gospel. The works of God are made visible through her in a very unique way through her healing. But in a very general way, even without miraculous healing, the works of God should be made visible in all of us, because all of us have been touched by Jesus just as the man born blind and the woman stooped over were touched by Him.

It's always been interesting to me how people today often want to talk about people with disabilities. In fact there are some people who tell us we should not even use the word "disability" because it means that such people are not as able or as capable as other people. They say we should describe them as "other-abled."

"Other-abled" — what in the world does that mean? For some years I was involved with the ARC of Oregon, a group that began when parents of children with Down Syndrome banded together to help one another and work for better conditions and opportunities for their children at home and in schools and in society at large. It was a great and good work. But for about the last 20 years, the group as a whole began to adopt what is called "people-first language." The word "retarded" was banished from usage because it was said to be a cruel word to describe their sons and daughters. I can appreciate that. Even today some people use the word "retard" as an insult. But what word do you use then? They decided on "developmentally disabled." Okay. But under the "people first" language, that was strictly enforced, you could not say, "My developmentally-disabled son," because in the minds of such people, you are putting the disability first and not the person. So you have to say, "My son, who is developmentally disabled. . ." And while I understand the hurt, pain and insult such children and their families can feel from the slights and behaviors of other people, I always thought this was a bad way to address it. In meetings or gatherings, folks would be reminded, "Use people-first language!" Nobody says, "That's a beautiful girl," and thinks that is a total description of that person. Nobody says, "That is a girl who is beautiful," and thinks it means something different than, "That's a beautiful girl." I get the idea behind "people-first" language. I just don't think it corresponds to reality.

Now, we could continue here with the topic of gender identification and other ways to describe people, or ways in which people describe themselves. But I think we're in this mess today because we have given up on the sanctity and the unique importance of very human life from the moment of conception to natural death. We've given up on it as a people. We can't point to it as the way to understand human beings, our fellow citizens and neighbors. So we have to use words and language that either try to pull us up from descriptions that we feel put us at a disadvantage, or harm us in some way, or else use a language that we feel puts us above other people as superior and more important. When we reject the truth of the God-given sanctity of life, we have to scramble to prove that our own lives or the lives of our loved ones really matter. And, in fact, there are people who think their lives do matter more than others, and we don't have to look far to find them. One easy example is Planned Parenthood. They are based on the philosophical principle that some people are more important than others.

This is what happens when, like the synagogue official, we don't see one another as sons and daughters of God, but instead just as other creatures that either please me, displease me, or don't matter either way. As Jesus pointed out, oxen and asses are more important and better treated by such people than human beings, and I think we can see evidence of that in our society today. Changing language does not change the fact that each human person has a God-given dignity. Calling someone a "retard" is an offense against that dignity, but banishing certain words or forcing us to use unnatural terms to talk about people cannot create that dignity. It never will.

The western world is failing to uphold and value the God-given life we all enjoy, in favor of a philosophy that acts as though "we don't know where we came from, we don't know where we're going, and who cares anyhow?" People have always sinned against one another, but without a faith in the truth of Christ, how can we know that our lives are equal in the sight of God, that we are not just animals sharing a planet with other creatures, that the unborn, the elderly and the stranger each have an intrinsic dignity as persons—and even more importantly than that, without a faith in Christ how can we love our neighbor as ourselves?

Satan is always trying to stoop us down, to bring us low, to appeal to our pride and our egos so that he can separate us from one another and especially to separate us from Christ. He has had more success lately than usual, but let it not be because we have bent our heads in his direction and neglected to lift our own eyes to heaven and give glory to God. The world blathers on as it always does, but let our mouths only speak Gospel truth—because that is the Good News.