The Owning

 A LENTEN PILGRIMAGE  Rev. Fr. K M George , The Owning

The Sanskrit word "tiryak" stands for all non-human creatures in general. The word means bent, horizontal, slanted or crooked, and it refers particularly to animals that walk on four legs. Their spine is horizontal and the face and eyes directed to the earth. This contrasts with the straight body of a human being who can stand erect and look up to the sky ("homo erectus" marks a crucial mile stone in the story of biological evolution).

The bent woman whom Jesus heals in the synagogue on a Sabbath day had been physically reduced to the animal condition. She had put up with suffering, with the indifference and contempt of others, for over 18 years. She had never dreamt that her condition would be altered, and so never sought any healing. Jesus, therefore, had to call her to come forward, and He placed His hands on her to restore the original condition of her body. This is one of those few occasions when Jesus heals someone without an explicit request to be healed. 

Jesus' act of liberating this old woman, probably a poor widow, on the margins of society, provoked an indignant reaction on the part of the leader of the Synagogue. He deplored it and decreed that the act of healing was a "work" that violated the holy Sabbath of the Lord. Sharply retorting, Jesus referred to the animal condition by asking if the owners of cattle took care to water their oxen and donkeys even on a Sabbath day. 

Then Jesus conferred a great honour on that insignificant woman reduced to animal condition by her physical infirmity and social apathy. He called her "the daughter of Abraham". By raising a poor anonymous woman practically ignored by all to a new name and status, Jesus owned her as a true descendant of Abraham.

Jesus thus once again illustrated the Gospel of the kingdom. He highlights for us the calling of the Church today to own the disinherited, to straighten those who are stooping and languishing in the shadow of death and gather all those in the margins into a new race of human beings. Jesus Christ is our redeemer and liberator says:

"Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, I will give you rest."(Matthew 11:28).