Raymond Gaita, a psychiatrist, was once working in a mental hospital in Australia where he worked with other psychiatrists who were compassionate and conscientious people, and he found himself challenged by an experience he witnessed, “One day a nun came to the ward.  In her middle years, only her vivacity made an impression on me until she talked to the patients.  Then everything in her demeanor towards them – the way she spoke to them, her facial expressions, the inflections of her body – contrasted with and showed up the behavior of those noble psychiatrists.  She showed that they were, despite their best efforts, condescending, as I too had been.  She thereby revealed that even such patients were, as the psychiatrists and I had sincerely and generously professed, the equals of those who wanted to help them; but she also revealed that in our hearts we did not believe this.”

    It is often a great challenge to us to treat people we meet each day as our equals, as true brothers and sisters who share our earthly pilgrimage and often our struggles.  It is so easy for us to make judgments, even though they may be small ones, that place a person either above us or below us in status.  We are constantly looking up to people or looking down upon them, our gaze is so often along the vertical plane, rather than seeing them as our equals in human dignity before God, standing together in the shared experience of our humanity and properly seen along the horizontal plane.  We want to think of ourselves as open-minded, accepting, caring and compassionate and yet when we really look into our hearts we see a great need for conversion and transformation in Christ for we do not yet fully believe and live what we profess to be.

    James exhorts the members of the Church in his time:  “My brothers and sisters, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” (James 2,1) James has noticed how some in his community are treating people who are wealthy and powerful different from those who are poor and humble.  It is an easy thing to do.  We all have different attributes, different gifts that distinguish us from one another but why should that separate us from one another and make us feel that we are better or worse than another person.  The popular poem, Desiderata, counsels us, “If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.”

    One day a rabbi asked his students, ‘How can you tell that night has ended and the day is returning?’  One student suggested, ‘When you can see clearly that an animal in the distance is a lion and not a leopard.’ ‘No,’ said the rabbi.  Another said, ‘When you can tell that a tree bears figs and not peaches?’ ‘No,’ said the rabbi. ‘It is when you can look on the face of another person and see that woman or man is your sister or brother.  Because until you are able to do so, no matter what time of day it is, it is still night.’

    In the gospel of Mark, chapter 7, 31-37, we witness the true compassion and mercy of Jesus as a model of true love and humility.  We are told that while Jesus was traveling through the Gentile district of the Decapolis, some “people” brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment.  We are not told that they are his friends or family and it seems to me that most probably he was just conveniently someone who happened to be deaf and challenged in his speech and that he would serve as a test for Jesus.  These people may have truly cared about this man but I think that it is more likely that they really were just laying hold of him and using him to see what Jesus could truly do.  Jesus does not commend the faith of the people who bring him this man as he does in other instances.  It seems to me that the fellow was probably frightened and confused by what was happening and so we see the compassion of Jesus to first take this fellow away from the crowd and to a place where they could be alone.  This person is not just another sick person to be healed but someone who shares his humanity and who is suffering.  He then strangely puts his finger in his ears and then places some spittle on his tongue.  In doing this it seems to me that Jesus is entering into this man’s world and sharing with him his struggles.  He is placing himself at this person’s level.  Now that he has communicated in this strange way with this fellow and formed a communion of persons he offers him a gift of new life in healing his infirmities.  Jesus doesn’t just do something “to” this person but rather he does something “with and for” this person who is also a child of God.  Jesus shows us today the healing power, not only of his touch but also of his heart.