Though it is not readily apparent, the laughter of Abraham in chapter seventeen and of Sarah in chapter eighteen is raised again in today’s reading. We are told that Sarah has given birth to a son whom Abraham named Isaac. This name is the same as the Hebrew word for laughter. At the same time we have to admit that this story is not really a laughing matter. Sarah becomes jealous of her slave Hagar and demands that Abraham send her and her child away. Though the story has a happy ending, we must also pay heed to the fact that Hagar and Ishmael are victims of the oppression that stems from the local custom that gives the primary wife total control over the female slaves.
The two demoniacs of the Gospel experience oppression as well. They are victims of their mental illness which prompted the local citizens to consign them to a life of misery, living among the corpses that are entombed outside the village.
When it is announced on Mt. Sinai that God is a merciful and gracious God, the announcement is meant to override such local customs and practices. God wishes to be known as one who is opposed to such oppression. God sends an angel to care for Hagar and Ishmael, and we are told in later chapters of the Book of Genesis that he fathers twelves sons who become chieftains. Jesus expels the cruel demons that have beset the poor men whom they inhabited.
Unfortunately we still live with the same kind of oppression and prejudice that create divisions between peoples, especially between the Arabs who are descendants of Ishmael and the children of Israel who are the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Mental illness still carries with it a social stigma even though we have learned that such illnesses are no different than physical illnesses.
So the Scriptures for today remind us that we are called by God to be people of compassion, the same compassion with which God dealt with us. Jesus is the personification of that compassion and calls us to walk in his footsteps.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator