The liberated mother-in-law and her journey (female)
(Mk 1:29-39)
"The essential thing is to listen to what rises from within. Our actions are often nothing more than imitation, hypothetical duty or misrepresentation of what a human being should be. But the only true certainty that touches our lives and our actions can only come from the springs that gush deep within ourselves. One is at home under the sky, one is at home anywhere on this earth if one carries everything within oneself. I have often felt, and still feel, like a ship that has taken on board a precious cargo: the ropes are cut and now the ship goes, free to sail everywhere".
(Etty Hillesum, Diary)
The Lord does not allow the misunderstanding of a faith that vulgarises Him. Jesus is not an all-intimate counsellor, nor a practitioner without Mystery.
Christ is not a miracle-worker - a freak - handcuffed in the manner of acclaimed holy men and healers (vv.34b.36-38).
Too many seek him out because of this, even his closest followers (vv.29.36b), but the Son of God prevents popular chatter, always chasing the extraordinary (vv.34b.37).
It is adherence to his way of life that helps one to rise up (vv.30-34a).
For the evangelised who become proclaimers, keeping up is linked to an evolving Faith, hence to the attitude of restarting (vv.38-39).
But on the Sabbath it was even forbidden to visit and care for the sick.
Already in the synagogue, the Lord had stirred the fetid waters of quietism.
Here he did not miss the opportunity to 'touch' a woman (at that time, a non-person) and make himself legally impure through direct contact with the sick woman.
Then, no rabbi would ever let himself be served by a woman.
Jesus challenges not only post-liturgical theology and purism, but upsets the assumptions of human and spiritual relationships.
Only 'service' counts, in all ancient conception considered unworthy for a perfect development of the personality.
[Even more so for the propagandistic expansion of archaic religions - armed with all their antiquated baggage, which only made souls sick].
Above all, in the ancient and classical mentality, characteristic of the human being was dominance, a sense of individual strength and clan or nation; alienation from all sense of neighbour.
So, in such a turnaround, the disciples' idea of speaking directly to Jesus about the difficulty they do not know how to deal with is excellent (v.30).
In the face of garbles, imbalances, their own and other people's needs - before rushing to bungle sloppy solutions - turning to the Lord is the most sensible choice to make, for fundamental healing.
Assumptions of non-life make us prisoners, unable to move towards God and our brothers and sisters.
In Christ we are called to bring the blocks of those who are restricted by difficulties into a new condition.
The bubble of stifled energy that compresses us characterises the humanity of the past too, and it recurs (v.31b).
Attending places of prayer must lead us - like Jesus - to ignore certain laws of purity; even to transgress the abstract norm of religion, if it dehumanises.
The only non-negotiable principle is the real good of the concrete woman and man, as they are and where they are; in their integrity.
We only honour God - like Christ - by valuing the excesses or absorbing the 'impurities' of sisters and brothers, in order to restore their dignity and motivation.
And while succeeding, we reject the temptation of success (v.35).
More important than being acclaimed is to continue the work of Announcement and Benevolence, without hesitation. Even in remote places.
One must not be deceived by the appearances of the urban and central apostolate that is always well organised.
One must flee both legalism and bungling enthusiasm, to go and find a new geography, and people where they are.
The Gospel requires an itinerant commitment, full of surprises.
This applies to the ecclesial bureaucracy itself, which sometimes unfortunately continues to stall many genuine pastoral initiatives, willingly hijacking them.
In difficult choices, prayer (v.35) becomes a bridge connecting life with our sacred centre, where God himself dwells and expresses himself - guiding us in a superior way.
Precisely, the Son prays because the followers seem exalted by success.
They allow themselves to be carried away by external passion and self-love, instead of evaluating with deep instinct and reason.
At this rate, they would lose their ability to succour infirmities of all kinds.
In fact, it was precisely the leaders "set out on his trail" - like "Pharaoh" and his militia (Ex 14:8-9) to prevent the Exodus (cf. Mk 1:38) to another land.
That of Jesus being forced to flee from the clutches of his own who want to take him hostage in order to live by reflected light and be revered by the crowds, is unfortunately still a story of our times - to be eradicated without much ado.
It is no coincidence that the Lord leads the disciples to involve themselves "preaching in their synagogues throughout Galilee and casting out demons" (v.39).
As if the dark powers that had been annihilating the people since then were lurking in the very places of ancient worship and the official religious institution.
The liberated mother-in-law and her (female) path
A final note on Mk's brushstroke on the story of Peter's mother-in-law, a "woman" who rediscovers her unexpressed capacities through contact with the person of the Lord.
An icon of a mental model that is still narrow, that stifles the youth of being and doing.
Ancient figure, of a tradition (of inherited religiosity) that holds back the intimate resources of the people [in Hebrew Israèl is female].
A world of restraints that make one uncomfortable, because of stifled, compressed energies - before Christ disappeared. To the point of not realising they are still inside.
I imagine precisely that such an old woman who literally 'resurrects' can be reinterpreted with spiritual fruit, for the journey of us all.
The Lord frees; he heals "inflammations". He gives greater joy of life.
He imparts an elixir of youth - especially when we feel held as dependents or slaves, without space.
Stuck and rendered dumb by the transmitted culture or situation, not only of health.
"And they came out of the synagogue into the house of Simon and Andrew together with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay feverish, and they told him about her. And approaching him he made her stand up by taking his hand. And the fever left her and served them" (vv.29-31).
There are revealing symptoms of discomfort: e.g. a life - even a spiritual one - that does not fit... because it denies abilities, constrains them, keeps them in a corner, does not allow them to be used.
To the point of no longer knowing what they are.
Here come symptoms that lie us down: anxious, mortifying, and feelings of constriction and dependence.
One would perhaps like to do something different, but then there are fears, tightness in the chest that close the horizon and make one tense, (even at that time) uncomfortable, stressed, blocked.
In the soul of the ancient people, talents disregarded, denied, unused had become hardships.
Now in Christ Present, the return to the fluid life, as well as the care of self and others, becomes easy, with minimal gestures.
The abilities that made intimate appeal, surface, and dilate in favour of others.
Relieved, the 'mother-in-law' breathes and overcomes ageing.
Before, sadness perhaps appeared, because the desire for a new birth was stifled by the many chores to be done or other cravings (fevers) that plant us there and do not restart feelings.
We know, however, that life restarts the moment someone helps to heal the sharp actions ["hand" constricted: Mt 8:15; Mk 1:31] and widen our gaze towards what is conversely blossoming in us.
By shifting perception from what nags us (torments and hinders) to what arises more spontaneously and is finally and unexpectedly valued, the blocks of tender, fresh energy disappear.
Then the garb of the ancient role is laid aside and we no longer give up expressing ourselves.
Also - for us - without closing ourselves off in the usual environment and way of doing things, which intimately do not belong to us.
Whoever gives the other a proper space draws on the virtues of our inner, evergreen primordial states - and opens up those of all.
All for a growth that does not only correspond to a precipitous elevation, but rather to a better grounding in the being of people.
By hibernating the burden of duties or models that do not correspond, life is renewed.
We realise that we are as if inhabited by the divine Gold that wants to surface and express itself with breadth, instead of remaining tense and controlled.
This is the healing action of Jesus, all at everyone's doorstep.
In fact, another great novelty of the new Rabbi's proposal - which was spreading - was the acceptance of women as we would say today "deaconesses" [v.31 cf. Greek verb] of the Church. Here in the figure of the House of Peter: "of Simon and Andrew, together with James and John" (v.29).
This was what had been happening since the middle of the first century (cf. Rom 16:1) and still has much to teach us.
With God, one cannot get used to (multi)secular formalities emptied of life.
But religious traditions resisted the onslaught of the Faith-Love experience: even in the mid-1970s, communities did not feel free to gather those in need of care until the evening (v.32).
It was indeed a Sabbath day - and after leaving the synagogue. The same impediment and delay is described in the episode of the Magdalene at the tomb on Easter morning.
Cultural heritage and religious conformity remained a great burden for the experience of the personal Saviour Christ.
Customs still remained a snare for the complete discovery of the power of full Life contained in the new total and creative proposal of "il Monte".
The Tao writes (xxviii):
"He who knows he is male, and keeps himself female, is the strength of the world; being the strength of the world, virtue never separates itself from him, and he returns to being a child. He who knows himself to be white, and keeps himself dark, is the model of the world; being the model of the world, virtue never departs from him; and he returns to infinity. He who knows himself to be glorious, and maintains himself in ignominy, is the valley of the world; being the valley of the world, virtue always abides in him; and he returns to being crude [genuine, not artificial]. When that which is crude is cut off, then they make instruments of it; when the holy man uses it, then he makes them the first among ministers. For this the great government does no harm'.
Master Wang Pi comments thus:
"That of the male is here the category of those who precede, that of the female is the category of those who follow. He who knows that he is first in the world must put himself last: that is why the saint postpones his person and his person is premised. A gorge among the mountains does not seek out creatures, but these of themselves turn to it. The child does not avail itself of wisdom, but adapts itself to the wisdom of spontaneity".
In the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas we read in Nos. 22-23:
"Jesus saw little ones taking milk.
And he said to his disciples:
"These little sucklings resemble those
Who are entering the Kingdom.
They asked him:
"If we are like those babies, will we enter the Kingdom?"
Jesus answered them:
"When you make two things one and make
The inner equal to the outer and the outer equal to the inner
And the superior equal to the inferior,
When you reduce the male and the female to one being
So that the male is not only male
And the female does not remain only female,
When you consider two eyes as a unit of eye
But one hand as a unit of hand
And one foot as a unit of foot,
A vital function in place of a vital function
Then you will find the entrance to the Kingdom".
"Jesus said:
"I will choose you one from a thousand and two from ten thousand.
And these shall be found to be one individual'".
To internalise and live the message:
How has the Encounter with the Lord and His personal Touch healed you, made you young and whole?