5th Sunday in OT 2024
Job 7:1-4,6-7; 1 Cor 9:16-19; Mark 1:29-39
One Sunday, in the parish of St. Thomas the Apostle, Claughton-on-Brock, I began my homily by asking “Sixteen tons, and what do you get?”, and the whole congregation chorused back “………………”
Yes, you are right. These are the opening lines of “Sixteen Tons” recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford (I kid you not) c1960, and subsequently by Tom Jones and all the world and his pet canary. My favourite version is a recent one by a group called Southern Raised, who have a bass singer whose voice comes right up from his boots. (It is well worth googling and watching/listening.)
For the benefit of anyone unfortunate enough not to know it, the chorus runs “Sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter, don’t call me, coz I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store.”
It could be Job’s theme song. “Whelmed in miseries so deep” as the Stabat Mater puts it, Job laments his very existence. There is a lot for us to ponder there.
Firstly, there is the matter of depression. You may be in a position to empathise with Job, or you may know someone who is. Anyone who has suffered from genuine depression knows that feeling exactly. Day, night, waking, sleeping bring no relief: you simply long not to exist. You cannot fight it: you need to seek medical help, and then wait grimly for it to pass. It WILL pass eventually, however impossible that may seem at the time. A common feeling is: “I know it has passed previously, but this time it won’t”. Yes it will. It passed even for Job. While it lasts, all you can do is take the treatment, pray, and unite your agony with that of Jesus in Gethsemane and on the Cross, through which it will play a part in His work of redemption.
There are also many issues concerning work. Slavery still exists in the world, even in this country. Are you aware of it? Do you campaign against it, and pray for its victims? Many other people are crushed by work or, conversely, crushed by unemployment. There is a great deal to pray for there.
St. Paul’s work is to preach the Gospel which, he implies, entails compassion—cum passio, suffering with—living in other people’s skin. Paul expresses it in terms of making himself all things to all people. The virtue of compassion is one of God’s greatest gifts to humanity: He expressed it by becoming one of us, literally living in human skin. It is a gift for which all of us should pray and strive.
In the Gospel, Jesus demonstrates four aspects of His work: He heals the sick, He casts out devils, He prays, and He preaches. At this point, the Sisters, and anyone who comes here regularly to weekday Mass, will utter a groan of anguish, because I am going to repeat something which I have said more often than you have had hot dinners. This is, in fact, your time to load sixteen tons.
What I have said repeatedly is that we, as members of Christ’s Body, are called, as He Himself stated on one occasion, to perform the same works as He does. We too are called to heal, to cast out devils, to pray, and to preach.
“Rubbish!” I hear you cry. “Not so!” I reply. Let’s take them one by one.
We are called to heal. There are more ways than one of killing a cat, and there are more ways than one of healing. You may not be able to heal as a doctor or nurse does, but you can offer healing words, a healing presence in the form of a listening ear, a shoulder to lean on, a kettle to boil. There is a great deal that you can do to heal.
You are called to cast out devils. What does that mean? It means that you must oppose evil wherever you find it. You should stand up for people who are bullied or unfairly treated: you should support them in their fight for justice. You should be prepared to sign petitions, to lobby MPs or councillors, to refuse to vote for candidates or parties who advocate unjust policies, keeping an eye on the common good and not simply your own advantage. Above all, you should pray.
That brings me to the third of Jesus’ works, namely prayer. Ten days or so ago, we kept the feast of St. Francis de Sales who, in Reformation times, wrote “An Introduction to the Devout Life” making the point that everyone is called to, and is capable of, a prayer life in keeping with their own situation. He argues that it would be ridiculous to expect a labourer to devote as much time to prayer as a monk, or a Capuchin friar to have the same pastoral demands as a bishop, but that all of us can and must pray in accordance with our own way of life.
Finally, Jesus preaches. It is probably not true that St Francis of Assisi told his followers “Preach by every means possible: if necessary, even use words” but there is nevertheless wisdom in the adage. Certainly, Pope St Paul VI wrote, in his 1975 document Evangelii nuntiandi—“On preaching the Gospel”—that “people today listen more to witnesses than to teachers, and if they do listen to teachers it is because they are also witnesses”. Practise what you preach: in fact, practise more than you preach.
Healing, casting out devils, praying, preaching, in appropriate ways: those are your sixteen tons. You may become a day older, but you won’t be deeper in debt, and you should be ready whenever St. Peter calls you.
