July 22, 2018
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B) on July 22, 2018, at St. Austin Parish in Austin, TX. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalm 23; Ephesians 2:13-18; and Mark 6:30-34.
We’ll be hearing from the Letter to the Ephesians until the end of August. A good way to think about Ephesians is to imagine it as a corporate merger document, negotiating how two very different groups of people – Jews and Greeks – will become a single faith community. In today’s passage, the Greeks are the people “who once were far off,” and Ephesians is saying that “the dividing wall of enmity” between Jews and Greeks has been destroyed so that together the two groups can become “one new person.”
Our first reading and our psalm today have been chosen to pick up a theme in the last line of today’s gospel, that the people coming to Jesus “were like sheep without a shepherd.” Inspired by that same verse, we on the St. Austin staff have decided to focus the homily on addressing two groups of people who may feel as if they are without a shepherd: those suffering from mental illness, and the families and friends of those who are suffering from mental illness.
We begin our Mass by recognizing that the Lord is kind and full of mercy.
Several events in the past year have raised the issue of mental illness in the American conscience. As we debate gun control and school safety, mental illness is part of the debate. Two celebrity suicides last month led to discussions about the mental illness epidemic in this country: since 1999, the rate of people dying by suicide has gone up by an alarming 25%, and the rate of people dying from cirrhosis of the liver due to chronic alcoholism has skyrocketed by 65%. These statistics span almost all demographic categories.
Although the fields of psychology and psychiatry have made great strides in treating mental illness, let’s face it: there’s still a stigma. Mental illness is simply a medical illness of the brain. While we support people going to see professionals for help with their other physical ailments, with their financial planning, and with styling their hair, a lot of us are uncomfortable with the idea of seeing a professional to help us with the way we think, the way we feel, or the way we cope.
So, even though roughly 1 in 5 people will struggle with a diagnosable mental illness in their lifetime, people often suffer in silence. We’re talking about a huge range of ailments: depression and anxiety are among the most common challenges people experience with their mental health. The family members and friends around them can feel powerless to help, as if they are “sheep without a shepherd.”
So, let’s talk about it. What should we do? What can we do?
Well, let’s start with the life of Jesus. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus repeatedly reaches out to people who appear to be moderately to severely mentally ill by today’s standards. To name a few: the man in the synagogue possessed by a demon (1:21-28), the Gerasene demoniac (5:1-20), and Bartimaeus, screaming at Jesus at the side of the road (10:46-52). We can imagine Jesus interacting with other people – including the apostles! – who may be suffering from depression, anxiety, or addiction. In each case, Jesus approaches these people and treats them with dignity. He refreshes their souls.
“But,” most of us are quick to respond, “Jesus was God. He could miraculously heal these people. I can’t do that!” Well, that’s right. However, we can still treat people with dignity. Our simple acts can make a huge difference: what we say, what we pray, and what we do. A lot of us are scared that in telling someone that we’re concerned about them, we’re going to make the situation worse. That’s very unlikely. There are lots of resources to help you if you are worried about how to talk with someone about mental illness:
- In the pamphlet racks as you leave church today, we have a thousand copies of the “Change the Conversation” cards made by the Austin division of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Take one with you. They have more information on them than I can impart in a single homily!
- You can call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, 1-800-273-TALK, and they’ll coach you on what to say. If you prefer, you can text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
- The city of Austin has the Expanded Mobile Crisis Outreach Team. You can call them at 512-472-HELP, and they will come to your home or to a quiet public place – like a coffeeshop – to give your loved one a mental health assessment.
- Don’t forget about us here at St. Austin Parish. We’re not mental health experts, but we’ll willingly offer you our prayerful support!
- Last but not least, at 6:30 pm on Monday, July 23, NAMI Austin will host Dr. Elizabeth Truong at the Yarborough Branch of Austin Public Library for a talk called “Working Together to Recognize and Respond to the Rise in Suicide.”
In a few significant ways, the history of mental health care policy in this country over the last 65 years parallels the phenomenon faced by the Ephesian community nearly 1,950 years ago.
The vast majority of the first Christian believers were Jews, but they were instructed to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the world. These Jewish Christians surely rejoiced in their Greek neighbors accepting the faith, but they probably hoped that these new Christians could be a little less “Greek” and a whole lot more “Jewish.” And by the time of Ephesians, the writing was on the wall: the Greeks would soon outnumber the Jews.
My limited understanding is that in the 1950s, this country concluded that it was wrong to institutionalize many of our brothers and sisters who are mentally ill. A great effort was made in the 1960s to mainstream as many people as possible, but since the 1970s, our country has repeatedly cut the funding for services to the mentally ill. Those people without family and friends who can make heroic sacrifices find themselves falling through the cracks of our social system. In a way, I think many of us are like the Jewish Christians, welcoming those with mental illness to live among us, as long as they don’t disturb our status quo.
Something’s got to give. As the “Change the Conversation” cards state: “The earlier people receive treatment [for mental illness], the less likely they are to face crisis.” But it can be difficult to gain access to affordable, ongoing, quality treatment.
As NAMI Austin also says, “Success rates for mental illness are similar to other health issues. The good news is people can achieve health and wellness!” And with health and wellness, it’s easier to find peace. Or, as Ephesians says to the Greeks and the Jews: “[Jesus Christ] came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to [you] who were near, for through him, we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”