20240130 TORN BETWEEN EMOTIONAL TIES AND PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY
30 January 2024, Tuesday, 4th Week of Ordinary Time
First reading |
2 Samuel 18:9-10,14,24-25,30-19:3 © |
David mourns Absalom
Absalom happened to run into some of David’s followers. Absalom was riding a mule and the mule passed under the thick branches of a great oak. Absalom’s head caught fast in the oak and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule he was riding went on. Someone saw this and told Joab. ‘I have just seen Absalom’ he said ‘hanging from an oak.’ Joab took three lances in his hand and thrust them into Absalom’s heart while he was still alive there in the oak tree.
David was sitting between the two gates. The lookout had gone up to the roof of the gate, on the ramparts; he looked up and saw a man running all by himself. The watch called out to the king and told him. The king said, ‘If he is by himself, he has good news to tell.’ The king told the man, ‘Move aside and stand there.’ He moved aside and stood waiting.
Then the Cushite arrived. ‘Good news for my lord the king!’ cried the Cushite. ‘The Lord has vindicated your cause today by ridding you of all who rebelled against you.’ ‘Is all well with young Absalom?’ the king asked the Cushite. ‘May the enemies of my lord the king’ the Cushite answered ‘and all who rebelled against you to your hurt, share the lot of that young man.’
The king shuddered. He went up to the room over the gate and burst into tears, and weeping said, ‘My son Absalom! My son! My son Absalom! Would I had died in your place! Absalom, my son, my son!’ Word was brought to Joab, ‘The king is now weeping and mourning for Absalom.’ And the day’s victory was turned to mourning for all the troops, because they learned that the king was grieving for his son. And the troops returned stealthily that day to the town, as troops creep back ashamed when routed in battle.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 85(86):1-6 © |
Turn your ear, Lord, and give answer.
Turn your ear, O Lord, and give answer
for I am poor and needy.
Preserve my life, for I am faithful;
save the servant who trusts in you.
Turn your ear, Lord, and give answer.
You are my God, have mercy on me, Lord,
for I cry to you all the day long.
Give joy to your servant, O Lord,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Turn your ear, Lord, and give answer.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving,
full of love to all who call.
Give heed, O Lord, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my voice.
Turn your ear, Lord, and give answer.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn14:6 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord;
No one can come to the Father except through me.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt8:17 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
He took our sicknesses away,
and carried our diseases for us.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 5:21-43 © |
Little girl, I tell you to get up
When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lakeside. Then one of the synagogue officials came up, Jairus by name, and seeing him, fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to make her better and save her life.’ Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him.
Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his cloak. ‘If I can touch even his clothes,’ she had told herself ‘I shall be well again.’ And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. Immediately aware that power had gone out from him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing round you and yet you say, “Who touched me?”’ But he continued to look all round to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. ‘My daughter,’ he said ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.’
While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official to say, ‘Your daughter is dead: why put the Master to any further trouble?’ But Jesus had overheard this remark of theirs and he said to the official, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’ And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. So they came to the official’s house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, ‘Talitha, kum!’ which means, ‘Little girl, I tell you to get up.’ The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At this they were overcome with astonishment, and he ordered them strictly not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.
TORN BETWEEN EMOTIONAL TIES AND PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 2 SM 18:9-10,14, 24-25, 30-19:3; PS 86:1-6; MK 5:21-43 ]
In the first reading, we read of the sad end of Absalom who rebelled against his father, David. He wanted to usurp the throne and conspired with the men of Israel to overthrow the king. To avoid bloodshed, King David fled from his palace with his men, suffering the humiliation of his enemies. When they had reorganized themselves to fight against Absalom and his army, the king ordered Joab and Abishai and Ittai, his three commanders, to “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.” All the people heard the king give orders to all the commanders concerning Absalom. (2 Sm 18:5)
However, his commanders did not heed the wishes of the king. As far as Joab, his top military commander, was concerned, Absalom had committed treason by gathering the people to rebel against King David. Their lives were at stake as they could all have been killed, including King David. But they fought for King David and protected him. Hence, we can feel with Joab when the opportunity came for him to avenge King David; “Absalom’s head caught fast in the oak and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule he was riding went on”. “Joab took three lances in his hand and thrust them into Absalom’s heart while he was still alive there in the oak tree.”
What was the reaction of King David when he heard what was supposedly great news for him? The Cushite shouted, “Good news for my lord the king! The Lord has vindicated your cause today by ridding you of all who rebelled against you.” But David was not thinking of revenge. He was more concerned with the well-being of Absalom. “Is all well with young Absalom?’ the king asked the Cushite. ‘May the enemies of my lord the king,’ the Cushite answered, ‘and all who rebelled against you to your hurt, share the lot of that young man.'” When he heard the sad news of the death of his son, “The king shuddered. He went up to the room over the gate and burst into tears, and weeping said, ‘My son Absalom, my son, my son!’ Word was brought to Joab, ‘The king is now weeping and mourning for Absalom.””
Whilst we can understand the sentiments of King David because his son was killed by his army commander, it certainly did not raise the morale of his men who fought so hard for him, putting their own lives at risk. “And the day’s victory was turned to mourning for all the troops, because they learned that the king was grieving for his son. And the troops returned stealthily that day to the town, as troops creep back ashamed when routed in battle.” There seems to be some injustice and lack of gratitude on the part of David for all they had sacrificed. After all, it was not just any crime or offence that Absalom committed, but the worst of all crimes, namely, treason. If he had succeeded in overthrowing King David, the entire people would have been put at risk and suffered the consequences. It was not just about King David and his throne. It was not just about Absalom. But their actions would have had repercussions on the entire country.
Indeed, sometimes we are like King David. We do not separate our personal ties from our professional duties. This is the mistake of many leaders when they allow emotional ties with someone in the office or in the organization to affect their decisions for the greater good of the organization. When we are partial in our judgements, favouring our friends, relatives and those who are good to us, we lose our objectivity in leadership. This will create mistrust, doubt and suspicion. This does not mean that as leaders we cannot be good friends with those under our charge, or those related to us. In fact, we should be friends with all, and be in good relationship with all our staff. But we must be conscious of the need to draw a line between professional responsibility and personal relationships. We must keep these two distinct so that we do not allow our judgment to skew in favour of those we like. If there exists strong emotional ties, then we must voluntarily recuse ourselves from judgment.
We see this similar tension between public duty and personal needs to a lesser degree in today’s gospel story. One of the synagogue officials, Jairus by name, upon seeing Jesus, “fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to make her better and save her life.'” For the sake of his daughter’s life, he had set aside his pride and status as a synagogue official. It no longer mattered to him what people would think of him for pleading with Jesus in such a reverential manner. For the sake of our loved ones, we would humble ourselves to great lengths to save them.
When Jesus was delayed by the crowd, and “some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official to say, ‘Your daughter is dead: why put the master to any further trouble?'”, he continued to place his total trust in the Lord. It was his total helplessness that brought him to the feet of our Lord.
What can we learn from this event? In this instance, the official represented the synagogue. As we have read earlier, St Mark wrote about the growing opposition of the Jewish leaders, the scribes and pharisees who were hostile towards Him and were seeking to eliminate Him. They were upset by His teaching and most of all, healing on the Sabbath. Jairus could have taken this position, but he was a brave man, perhaps driven by despair to take a bet on Jesus. He knew that if he were to stick to such so-called orthodoxy, he would surely lose his daughter. What Jairus made was a pragmatic decision based on an existential situation which he deemed to warrant his departing from the line of other religious leaders. He made his own decision based on the facts of the situation.
Again, in this instance, Jairus represents a leader who is able to distinguish between right and wrong. He could have played safe and toed the line of most of the religious leaders in his days with respect to their assessment of Jesus as a true rabbi. But he was desperate to save his daughter, and he was not blind to the fact that Jesus was a healer and a man of God. Driven by his emotional ties to his daughter, he took the courage to go against what he felt was a misjudgement of Jesus by the institution. We presume that he was ready to answer for his actions. And because of his courage to not allow prejudice to blind him, he was proven right against all odds in placing his trust in Jesus that He would be able to raise his daughter back to life. Learning from Jairus, as leaders, we must always act objectively in the light of the facts presented before us and not submit to rules blindly.
Finally, we also have the example of the personal courage of a woman who was ready to break the law for the sake of a greater need and good. She understood that laws were meant for the common good of the people. However, her instincts told her that she should not allow the law to prevent her from getting healed. Having suffered terribly “from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she had spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact, she was getting worse”, she took the courage to stealthily touch the clothes of Jesus, believing that if she could touch His clothes, she would be healed. True enough, “the source of bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint.”
In order to vindicate the woman so that she would not feel guilty for her action, which was not permitted under law for she was unclean, the Lord, “immediately aware that power had gone out from him, …turned round in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?'” Because of her honesty in owning up to her action, she was set free not just from her illness but her guilt when the Lord assured her, “My daughter, your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.” We, too, must learn from her to have the courage to act always in faith and with integrity.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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