Reflection - Bondage

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102918.cfm
Ephesians 4:32-5:8
Luke 13:10-17

“This daughter of Abraham,
has [been] bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?"

Bondage or slavery has taken many forms through the centuries; in some forms it still continues today. There was, for example, a time when those who couldn’t pay a debt were imprisoned. You could be pressed into bondage just because you were captured or maybe you were collateral damage during a war. You could, and still can, end up in prison because of a crime. In life we find that deformities, some illnesses, and some mental conditions can each be a form of bondage. Among the less obvious forms of human bondage we might cite the notion that we are all slaves to our past. The Hatfields hate the McCoys, the French are suspicious of the Germans, and individuals recall real or imaginary events which changed the course of their lives. We can even be prisoners of the errors we were taught when we were young. Not too long ago young girls were told they couldn’t be doctors, or scientists, or whatever because these were men’s jobs. Not too long ago young men were discouraged from expressions of sorrow because big boys don’t cry.

Back in the fourth chapter of Luke’s gospel, Jesus read in the Synagogue on the Sabbath from the Prophet Isaiah and referred the passage to himself.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed”. (Luke 4:18, Isaiah 61:1)

The text from Isaiah is actually more expansive upon the notion of imprisonment. That passage ends with these words.

“He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”

In either case, the meaning is the same; and in today’s reading we find Jesus executing the charge he has been given. “Ought she not to have been set free?” He asks.

Quickly we hear objections from the leader of the synagogue. Apparently he has read too rigidly from the book of Ecclesiastes and is quite aware that: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) He seems rooted in that same Old Testament text which goes on to proclaim that, among other things, “There is a time to heal.” And this, the leader says, is not it!

There’s no reason to reflect here on Jesus’ charge of hypocrisy or to examine the particulars of the examples he chooses to refute the synagogue leader’s position. Rather, I prefer to reflect on the appropriateness of immediate action. If Paul had already written his letter to the Corinthians, Jesus probably would have quoted him during this encounter: "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (II Corinthians 6:2) When freedom from slavery or bondage or imprisonment is offered, it is never useful or wise to say I’ll consider that tomorrow.

But there is another part of this text which must also be considered, for it too speaks to the appropriateness of immediacy in the woman’s cure. From Jesus we hear, in his reply, four words that we are inclined to put in the the trash bin of the archaic or to excuse as acceptable only because they are spoken in a so-called ‘primitive’ society. The woman has been crippled, bent over, completely incapable of standing erect; and Jesus refers to her condition by observing that she is someone “whom Satan has bound.” Is that the way we look at the world today? Or do we just attribute these issues to accidents, imperfect genes, disease or the violent actions of others?

When reflecting on recent events in light of Jesus words my suspicions arise that there is more going on than meets the eye. What do you say about a small child that loses all four limbs because of a surmised, unknown bug acquired by swimming in the ocean? Are the angry accusations blithely tossed about by politicians simply the result of strong principles? Neither obsession nor insanity sufficiently explain violence in a synagogue or the shooting of a fellow student. Nor is it comprehensible that conviction alone can explain the recent lying and clawing and grasping at straws in the hope of preserving the right to kill the unborn.

Jesus would, as I said before, probably have quoted St Paul if only Paul’s letter had already been written. "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” The immediacy of the present need to “proclaim liberty to the captives and the oppressed, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” Is hourly evidenced in the news we are growing reluctant to hear.

We may well say that in the end, God Wins; but who knows how far we are from the end. In the moment we are still bound by Satan. In the moment we are still imprisoned or oppressed or bound by issues from which Jesus alone can set us free. And those very issues are what Satan manipulates to his purposes of anger, fighting, hatred, revenge, division, lying, deceit and intransigence.

Given the facts, is it ever useful or wise to say when the Spirit so lightly prompts us: “I’ll consider that tomorrow. . . “ Prompts us to spend more time in prayer, to spend a few minutes before the Blessed Sacrament, to attend Mass more frequently, to share our faith with other Christians, to join in projects to assist those in need. Our own bondage is there. Maybe it is still hidden from us. But the battle with evil is evidence that we have yet to reach that time where suffering and sorrow, pain and disillusionment have passed.

When you’re in the midst of the battle it’s probably a good idea to accept — and accept immediately — any freedom from bondage which may still burden our lives.