Stand Up Straight
There is a peculiar thing about walking while looking at the ground.
After a while, the ground begins to seem like the whole world.
This morning’s Gospel gives us a woman who has been bent over for eighteen years. She has lived almost two decades with her eyes naturally directed downward. Then Christ sees her.
Before she asks, before the synagogue ruler can object, before anyone can debate the regulations, Jesus calls her forward.
And suddenly a woman who has spent eighteen years looking down can look up.
Let us begin the morning there.
Opening Verse
Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Invitatory
Let us rejoice in the Lord; with songs let us praise him.
Psalm 94 (95)
Come, let us praise the Lord with joy:
let us joyfully sing to God our saviour.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving;
and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great king above all gods.
For in his hand are all the ends of the earth:
and the heights of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his, and he made it:
and his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us adore and fall down:
and weep before the Lord that made us.
For he is the Lord our God:
and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand.
Today if you shall hear his voice,
harden not your hearts:
As in the provocation,
according to the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Where your fathers tempted me,
they proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation,
and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways:
so I swore in my wrath
that they shall not enter into my rest.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Let us rejoice in the Lord; with songs let us praise him.
Psalmody
Psalm 41 (42)
When shall I come and appear before the face of God?
As the hart panteth after the fountains of water;
so my soul panteth after thee, O God.
My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God;
when shall I come and appear before the face of God?
My tears have been my bread day and night,
whilst it is said to me daily: Where is thy God?
These things I remembered, and poured out my soul in me:
for I shall go over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God:
With the voice of joy and praise;
the noise of one feasting.
Why art thou sad, O my soul?
and why dost thou trouble me?
Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him:
the salvation of my countenance, and my God.
My soul is troubled within myself:
therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and Hermoniim, from the little hill.
Deep calleth on deep, at the noise of thy flood-gates.
All thy heights and thy billows
have passed over me.
In the daytime the Lord hath commanded his mercy;
and a canticle to him in the night.
With me is prayer to the God of my life.
I will say to God: Thou art my support.
Why hast thou forgotten me?
and why go I mourning, whilst my enemy afflicteth me?
Whilst my bones are broken,
my enemies who trouble me have reproached me;
Whilst they say to me day by day:
Where is thy God?
Why art thou sad, O my soul?
and why dost thou disquiet me?
Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him:
the salvation of my countenance, and my God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
When shall I come and appear before the face of God?
Canticle — Ecclesiasticus 36
Show us, O Lord, the light of thy mercies.
Have mercy upon us, O God of all, and behold us,
and show us the light of thy mercies:
And send thy fear upon the nations,
that have not sought after thee:
That they may know that there is no God beside thee,
and that they may show forth thy wonders.
Lift up thy hand over the strange nations,
that they may see thy power.
For as thou hast been sanctified in us in their sight,
so thou shalt be magnified among them in our presence,
That they may know thee, as we also have known thee,
that there is no God beside thee, O Lord.
Renew thy signs, and work new miracles.
Glorify thy hand, and thy right arm.
Gather together all the tribes of Jacob:
that they may know that there is no God besides thee, and may declare thy great works:
And thou shalt inherit them as from the beginning.
Have mercy on thy people, upon whom thy name is invoked:
and upon Israel, whom thou hast raised up to be thy firstborn.
Have mercy on Jerusalem, the city which thou hast sanctified,
the city of thy rest.
Fill Sion with thy unspeakable words,
and thy people with thy glory.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Show us, O Lord, the light of thy mercies.
Psalm 18 (19)
Blessed art thou, O Lord, in the firmament of heaven.
The heavens show forth the glory of God,
and the firmament declareth the work of his hands.
Day to day uttereth speech,
and night to night showeth knowledge.
There are no speeches nor languages,
where their voices are not heard.
Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth:
and their words unto the ends of the world.
He hath set his tabernacle in the sun:
and he, as a bridegroom coming out of his bride chamber,
Hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way:
His going out is from the end of heaven,
and his circuit even to the end thereof:
And there is no one that can hide himself from his heat.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Blessed art thou, O Lord, in the firmament of heaven.
Short Reading
Jeremiah 15:16
Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was to me a joy and gladness of my heart: for thy name is called upon me, O Lord God of hosts.
Short Responsory
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye just; praise becometh the upright.
Sing unto him a new canticle.
Praise becometh the upright.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye just; praise becometh the upright.
Gospel of the Day
Luke 13:10–17
And he was teaching in their synagogue on their sabbath.
And behold there was a woman, who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years: and she was bowed together, neither could she look upwards at all.
Whom when Jesus saw, he called her unto him, and said to her: Woman, thou art delivered from thy infirmity.
And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
And the ruler of the synagogue, being angry that Jesus had healed on the sabbath, answering, said to the multitude: Six days there are wherein you ought to work. In them therefore come, and be healed; and not on the sabbath day.
And the Lord answering him, said: Ye hypocrites, doth not every one of you on the sabbath day loose his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead them to water?
And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?
And when he said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the things that were gloriously done by him.
Benedictus
The Canticle of Zachary — Luke 1:68–79
Blessed be the Lord, for he hath visited us and wrought the redemption of his people.
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel;
because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us,
in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets,
who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies,
and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our fathers,
and to remember his holy testament:
The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father,
that he would grant to us:
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him,
all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest:
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of salvation to his people,
unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God,
in which the Orient from on high hath visited us:
To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death:
to direct our feet into the way of peace.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Blessed be the Lord, for he hath visited us and wrought the redemption of his people.
Intercessions
Christ saw the woman who had been bowed down for eighteen years and called her to himself. Trusting in the same mercy, let us bring him the burdens of this morning.
Lord Jesus, set thy people free.
For the Church: that she may never become so concerned with rules, customs, schedules, and institutions that she fails to see the suffering person standing before her.
Lord Jesus, set thy people free.
For our bishops, priests, deacons, religious, missionaries, and all who serve the Gospel: give them the eyes of Christ to recognize those who have been overlooked.
Lord Jesus, set thy people free.
For our nation and communities: free us from bitterness, dishonesty, contempt, and the habit of seeing our neighbors chiefly as members of opposing camps.
Lord Jesus, set thy people free.
For our work today: keep us honest in what we build, write, teach, repair, manage, sell, design, and decide. Let our work lighten burdens rather than add to them.
Lord Jesus, set thy people free.
For our homes and families: loosen the knots of old resentments, impatient words, needless worries, and grievances carried too long.
Lord Jesus, set thy people free.
For those who have lived for years beneath illness, disability, grief, loneliness, addiction, poverty, fear, or discouragement: give them strength, good companions, wise care, and hope.
Lord Jesus, set thy people free.
For those who have died, especially those forgotten by the world: bring them into the freedom and light of thy presence.
Lord Jesus, set thy people free.
For ourselves: show us whatever has bent our hearts toward the ground and kept us from seeing thee, our neighbors, and the wonder of the world thou hast made.
Lord Jesus, set thy people free.
Our Father
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
Concluding Prayer
Almighty and merciful God, thou hast called us from darkness into the light of thy Son. Free us from every bond that keeps us bowed down. Give us eyes to see those who suffer, courage to place mercy before convenience, and hearts ready to rejoice in thy works. May every thought, word, and deed of this day be pleasing in thy sight.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Blessing
May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
The Paradox of the Day
Christ sets us free not so that we may escape the world, but so that at last we may stand upright and truly see it.
Chesterton for the Morning
“There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.”
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics, “On the Negative Spirit”
A Chestertonian Meditation
Stand Up Straight
There is a great deal of philosophy in the difference between the floor and the ceiling.
Most of us give neither much attention.
The floor receives shoes, crumbs, dropped screws, dog hair, children’s toys, and the occasional coin that rolls with astonishing intelligence beneath the heaviest piece of furniture in the room.
The ceiling does almost nothing.
Yet if a man were condemned to look only at the floor for eighteen years, the ceiling would become an object of almost unimaginable wonder.
This is the strange detail at the heart of this morning’s Gospel.
The woman is not blind.
She can see.
But she cannot look up.
Saint Luke tells us she has been bent over for eighteen years. The Douay-Rheims puts it with almost painful simplicity: “she was bowed together, neither could she look upwards at all.”
Eighteen years.
Think of what passes overhead in eighteen years.
Clouds.
Birds.
Stars.
Storms.
The faces of people standing before you.
Branches in spring.
Church towers.
The moon.
The sunrise.
All the things Chesterton spent his life reminding us to look at.
And then, one Sabbath, Jesus sees her.
This is important.
Before the woman looks up, Christ looks at her.
We are accustomed to saying that we are looking for God. Christianity contains the much more unsettling idea that God is looking for us.
Christ notices people.
He notices Zacchaeus in a tree. He notices the widow putting two coins into the treasury. He notices blind Bartimaeus while everyone else is trying to quiet him. He notices the woman who touches the hem of his garment in a crowd.
And here he notices a woman whose world has been reduced to the ground in front of her feet.
Jesus calls her.
“Woman, thou art delivered from thy infirmity.”
Then he lays his hands upon her.
And she stands straight.
One imagines that the first thing she saw was the face of Christ.
There is enough in that image for a lifetime of prayer.
But the story immediately becomes almost comic, because someone objects.
The ruler of the synagogue is angry.
Not because the woman remains crippled.
Because she has been healed on the wrong day.
There is something almost magnificently absurd about this.
A woman has been bent over for eighteen years. She suddenly stands upright. She glorifies God.
And somebody checks the calendar.
Chesterton would have understood the scene instantly because he was fascinated by the way sensible systems can become ridiculous when we forget what they are for.
Rules are good things.
Sabbath is a good thing.
Order is a good thing.
Institutions are necessary things.
But a rule meant to honor God becomes monstrous when it is used as an argument against mercy.
Jesus answers with an ordinary barnyard observation.
You untie an ox on the Sabbath.
You lead a donkey to water.
Of course you do.
Nobody holds a theological conference while the animal stands thirsty.
And then comes the magnificent reversal:
If you will untie an animal, why object when God unties a woman?
“This daughter of Abraham,” Jesus calls her.
That title matters.
For eighteen years her infirmity has defined the way she moves through the world.
Jesus defines her differently.
Daughter of Abraham.
Before she is a patient, a problem, an interruption, or an inconvenient exception to somebody’s interpretation of the Sabbath, she is a daughter of the covenant.
She belongs.
And she ought to be free.
There are many ways of being bent over.
Some are physical, and Christianity should never sentimentalize physical suffering. Pain is pain. Disability is not a literary device.
But there are other burdens that gradually alter the angle at which we look at life.
Fear can bend a man.
So can resentment.
So can debt.
So can disappointment.
So can grief.
So can the endless accumulation of small anxieties that individually seem manageable but collectively become a weight carried across the shoulders.
Even routine can bend us.
We wake up.
Check the phone.
Read the bad news.
Answer the messages.
Look at the calendar.
Drive to work.
Fix the problem.
Pay the bill.
Worry about tomorrow.
Go to bed.
Repeat.
And without noticing when it happened, we can spend an astonishing amount of life looking downward.
The Christian answer is not to pretend that the ground does not exist.
The woman in the Gospel did not imagine her affliction.
Christ does not tell her to think positively.
He frees her.
Christian hope is not the denial of gravity.
It is the discovery that gravity does not have the final word.
This is why today’s Morning Prayer begins with Psalm 41:
“As the hart panteth after the fountains of water; so my soul panteth after thee, O God.”
The soul thirsts upward.
Then Psalm 18 turns our attention still higher:
“The heavens show forth the glory of God.”
The whole movement of the morning is vertical.
The thirsty soul seeks God.
The heavens proclaim him.
The woman stands upright.
Perhaps that is also why Saint Paul’s words at Mass are so fitting: “you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”
Light is useless to a man who refuses to look.
Chesterton’s sentence therefore becomes more than a clever remark:
“There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.”
It is easy to treat this merely as advice for curious people.
Look around.
Pay attention.
Don’t be bored.
But Christianity pushes the idea further.
To become interested in creation is, in some measure, to recover the proper posture of a creature.
The world is not scenery placed around us while we conduct the serious business of thinking about ourselves.
It is a gift.
A maple leaf in October is not required to be red.
A river is under no obligation to reflect the sunrise.
Coffee need not smell as good as it does.
Children need not laugh.
Dogs need not wag their tails.
The sky certainly does not owe us clouds