Homily for February 8, 2009 5th Sunday of the Year

I noticed a few of you exchanging glances when it said the fever left her and she got up and waited on them. One feminist Scripture scholar quips, "He cured her just in time for dinner." And I've always been a little bothered by this Gospel, because it does seem that Jesus has a self serving motive in curing her. I'm going to ask for some help from the women, and I'm going to risk treading on dangerous water.
I'm a man. Whenever I've been sick, there has always been a woman to take care of me, to feed me warm soup, to tuck me in, to attend to my needs. What happens when you're sick and you're the one who's expected to look after everybody's needs?
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Okay, one answer is you don't get sick.
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So when you were sick, the two next to you took good care of you.
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They put on the tombstone "I told them I was sick."
Yes?
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So Audrey says she's fortunate when she's sick. She has somebody to take care of her, and she hopes that's changing.
Any other thoughts to share?
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After Bob died, one of the first things I thought of was I'm going to have to really be careful because I'm not going to have him to pick me up anymore.
After Bob died, Angie thought she was going to have to be careful because she won't have anybody to pick her up anymore.
Any other? Yes, Jackie?
It can be humbling because you have to ask for help that you wouldn't otherwise seek.
I have an agency that comes and takes care of me.
You can hire an agency to come.
The definition of "taking care of" might change, where we, all the men would be tucked in and have chicken soup, as you said. It changes. He may not cook dinner, but he will go out and get dinner. So the definition becomes relative.
So it becomes relative.
Neal?
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Women are tougher? That's dangerous territory to say.
I look to other women, to my friends if I feel down.
You look to other women, to your friends.
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Men don't know how to do that, till you're in a relationship, and then it's on the job training.
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Okay. So men are developing our feminine side more, and that's to be encouraged.
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In that culture that was the role of the woman.
I thought that, when I read this Gospel, too, because later this afternoon I'll be at the Women's Prison. And you know, the hardest thing about being in prison for many of the women isn't that they can't party, or that they can't do the freedom things that we would all associate with that. But the hardest thing is the sense of shame and guilt over "not being able to take care of my kids," or "not being able to take care of my family." And as I thought of that, I thought maybe what's going on in this Gospel is that to be sick, for Peter's mother in law, was to be cut off from her normal role and position within the family. So healing is not just the fever leaving her, but healing is being restored to that normal role and that normal position, and, therefore, being able to be of service for a family.
Now, in a few moments we're going to celebrate the anointing of the sick. I've noticed over my 12 years here, there's a great deal of variation in how we handle sickness. Some people, when they're sick, don't want anybody to know. And so they go to the hospital, they don't want to be on a prayer list, they don't want a fuss made over it, they don't want attention drawn to it. Others, when they are sick, will very freely ask for the prayers of the community. I don't mean to imply that one is right and the other wrong, but being able to be surrounded by the love and the care of a community is very important.
The oil that we use  well, why do we use oil? You know, in biblical times, before we had all the creams and ointments and chemicals that you can buy in the store, what did they have? They had the natural oils that were the fruit of the earth, and these were very important as the symbol of health and in healing. Remember the story of the good Samaritan? He poured oil into the wounds.
In the early days of the church, this oil was blessed with a prayer that those who were anointed with it might know God's healing power. There was a time in the church when people took this home with them. And if you had a child that was sick, you would anoint him with this oil. If you had a family member that was sick, you would anoint him. The anointing was freely done by everybody.
Now, due to a long complicated history that I can't go into now, except to say that the factors in this history are not always good, this anointing with oil got to be reserved to the priest. St. Theresa of Avila has a little poem where she says that everything is holy, and she questions why would those priests appropriate to themselves the power to declare holy what already is? So I think of that whenever I have to bless and wonder what I'm doing. But in our culture today, and in the name of the Church, we anoint with oil.
And so I want to invite those who would like to be anointed to come forward. And just, the rest of you just pray for them for whatever healing they are seeking, with the curiosity maybe that is caring but not intrusive. But just be together in prayer.