“Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and the disciples told Jesus about her at once. Jesus came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.” (Mark 1:30-31)
February 5, 2012
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 1:29-39 Reading Here
Fr. Robert deLeon, CSC
An early December article in our local newspaper caught my attention for the vital lesson it offers all who struggle in body, mind or soul. Entitled, “A Tree, a Chain Saw and a Vision of Art,” I quote excerpts from that article:
“The intricate 30-foot-long carving from a downed poplar tree stretching across the side lawn at Shane Prescott's home is part personal journey and part commentary on world affairs. ‘I had a tree and a chain saw, and that's where it brought me to,’ he said of the melding of detailed skulls and creatures that he created with a heavy duty chain saw, grinder and blowtorch.
“‘I was thinking of my take on what's going on in the world,’ said Prescott, a married 44-year-old father of two. ‘Everything was taken away, and everything had to evolve again out of the ground.’ Diagnosed with dyslexia as a young boy, [he] said he has never let the learning disability curb his creativity. [Then] he developed severe back pain that required surgery after 27 years as an auto mechanic at a variety of businesses. [Presently] he receives Social Security disability payments.
“As Prescott began chiseling out the sculpture for two to three hours a day, he received stares from motorists and pedestrians. Those stares turned into looks of amazement when they saw the finished product, which he completed a few weeks ago. He hopes his personal struggles and the sculpture will serve as a lesson to people who see it.
“‘Don't focus on what you don't have, but rather look at what you do have,’ Prescott said. ‘I have my mind set that I need to focus on what I can do instead of dwelling on my body or [my] financial situation.’” (Albany, NY, “Times Union, December 6, 2011”)
A fallen poplar tree in the yard of a dyslexic man suffering severe back pain: Shane Prescott knew brokenness – knew it as pieces of his life had been snatched away, and recognized it again in the huge poplar that lay across the side of his property. More in determination than despair, Shane confessed, “Everything was taken away, and everything had to evolve again out of the ground.” That is, when you’re down so low that all you can taste is dirt, you don’t just lay there in resignation. You trust that you were meant to live – that life, even a broken one, has a purpose and a mission. It’s how Shane was fashioning his own life. It was how he was going to express it in that fallen poplar.
In the gospel passage we hear today, “Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and the disciples told Jesus about her at once. Jesus came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.” (Mark 1:30-31)
Now, there’s much one could make of these few sentences. For one, Simon Peter, chosen by Jesus to be first among the apostles – indeed, the first pope – had a mother-in-law. So the church began with a married pope! While much could be made of that, we won’t. We also see Jesus healing an older woman of her infirmity, and then she waits on them. A cynic might suggest that Jesus healed her in order that she could wait on them, but it’s not our intention to go down that avenue either. Rather, I call us back to Shane Prescott’s assertion that even the broken have a purpose and a mission. And for both Shane and Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, it was to be of service. As Shane attested, and as I suspect was the case with the mother-in-law, they wanted only to be contributing members of society, to be servants of the common good. It was their destiny. So, too, is it ours – even when we’re broken.
At present I live with a community of 26 Holy Cross Brothers who, though in their senior years and bearing hints of brokenness, yet remain active in ministry. While earlier days found most of them laboring in schools as teachers, counselors and administrators, these days find them laboring at prayer for the needs of those depending on their support. Indeed, the governing rules of our religious community, the Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross, mandate all members to remain hard at the mission for as long as possible. Thus states our rule:
“All of us are involved in the mission: those who go out to work and those whose labors sustain the community itself, those in the fullness of their strength and those held back by sickness or by age. Our mission is the Lord’s and so is the strength for it. We turn to Him in prayer that He will clasp us more firmly to Himself and use our hands and wits to do the work that only He can do. Then our work itself becomes a prayer: a service that speaks to the Lord who works through us.” (Const. 2:18, 20)
The ability to serve is itself a great gift. Sometimes, though, even the most willing servants are felled – not unlike a giant poplar sprawling across a lawn. As Shane Prescott testified, “Everything was taken away, and everything had to evolve again out of the ground.” Yes, when you’re down so low that all you can taste is dirt, there is the starkest choice to be made: to struggle back into life or settle into death. Shane chose life both for himself and a dead tree as he sculpted that poplar into a piece of neighborhood folk art.
View Archives »