Mary van Balen

PHOTO:DEXA Bone Scan Image Rock Creek Imaging
At 8:30 am I was ushered into the ultrasound room for an inside look at liver, spleen, kidneys, and gall bladder. I watched the screen on my left as the technician skillfully rolled the transducer over my skin, and asked questions as shadowy images appeared. She explained which organs were which, showed me how she measured them, and interpreted bright colors as indicators of blood flow.

Less than fifteen minutes elapsed from beginning to end of the procedure which would provide my doctor with the information she had requested. I was prepared to find a breakfast spot with free WiFi (Fasting is required for the ultrasound.) to fuel up and write a blog before the next scheduled test: a dexa bone scan. Read More 

The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered, …If I am not doing the works of my Father, and then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
Jn 10, 31-33, 37-38

Jesus was telling the Jews to judge him by his works. If they could not accept his words and the language he used to explain his relationship to the Holy One, then he directed them to recognize God’s work in him. The Jews were unable to see what was in front of them in part because they could not suspend judgment that was a reaction to Jesus’ words long enough to consider his life and his actions.

How often do we react negatively when someone’s speech challenges what we have been taught and what we believe without considering the person standing in front of us?  Read More 

They said to him, "Who are you?"
Jesus said to them,
"Why do I speak to you at all?"
Jn 8, 25

As I read the passage from John, these words stopped me dead. I have heard them before. I have muttered them myself. I smiled, not at Jesus' frustration with those who never seemed to "get it" no matter how many ways he tried to say it: I am the one sent by God; When you see me, you see the Father; You have greater than John here..."

I smiled at the common human experience of not being able to make oneself understood. We have all been there. Mutual lack of understanding is built into the parent/child relationship. You many not be a parent, but everyone was a child. We can identify with the exasperation of the Son of God. Divinity not withstanding, he just couldn't make those people understand.

Sometimes I think most of Jesus' disciples were particularly dense. Or, more kindly, I imagine their minds were not open to a reality as radical as the one Jesus was presenting to them. I should choose the kinder interpretation because many times, I am standing right with them.

How often have I failed to recognize God-With-Me or doubted the Presence of the Holy One working in the world? Overcome with uncertainty, with the current state of humanity, I don't get it. I don't remember that as Julian of Norwich so positively proclaimed: "All will be well," and that it will be well because the One Who Created All Things will not abandon what has been made.

One the other hand, I also know there are those who, like the Psalmist in today's reading, are destitute, suffering beyond anything I have known, and who feel alone:

My heart is stricken and withered like grass;
I am too wasted to eat my bread.
Because of my loud groaning,
my bones cling to my skin.
I am like an owl of the wilderness,
like a little owl of the waste places.
I lie awake;
I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.
Ps 102, 4-7 Read More 

MEMORIAL BRONZE SCULPTURE BY CONNIE BUTLER

Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool called, in Hebrew Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many --blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thrity-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me."
Jn 5, 2-8


Jesus must have been puzzled by a man who had been lying by the water for thirty-eight years. "Do you want to be made well?" was an appropriate question. One might think the man was too lazy to hurry to the water, or maybe enjoyed his plight. Someone must have been bringing him food and water to survive for years. Perhaps he liked not having to work or care for himself.

His answer was none of the above, and it made me stop. "I have no one to put me into the pool..." He had no one to help. Jesus took care of that with a word. He had no need of the water; his word had the power to heal.

I think of so many people in our world "lying in the portico" like those suffering from the earthquakes in Haiti or from famine in those in Africa enduring famine. In our own country, many people suffer from lack of affordable or available healthcare. They have no one to help. As St. Theresa of Avila said, we must be the hands and heart of Jesus in this world.

Those suffering tell us they have no one to help.

What will we do?
© 2010 Mary van Balen Read More 

The Common Good received a "yea" vote last night when the healthcare bill passed the House. It is a beginning.

One Republican crossed party lines to vote with the majority of Democrats, Anh "Joseph" Cao. Who is he? Why would he make such a courageous move? A little Googling gave me an idea.

He is a Vietnamese who escaped from Vietnam when he was eight years old. Successful in school, he felt called to the priesthood and studied at a Jesuit seminary for six years before discerning that was not his call. He did share the Jesuit passion for social justice, and carried that with him through law school and eventually into a political career.

He is in his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives, the first Republican to be elected in Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District since the late 1800's, representing a predominately Democratic constituency with a large African American population.

Joseph Cao's heart seems to be with those living in poverty, those not well severed by the government or other agencies like those in his own district (including himself and his family) who were devastated by hurricane Katrina, and refugees. I imagine we will hear more about him in the weeks to come. Read More 

Links: Searchable text provided by the Library of Congress Sect. 259: Nondiscrimination on Abortion and Respect for Rights of Conscience Op Ed Nicholas Kristof "Unhealthy America" An interesting article, on "The American Catholic" exploring healthcare and Catholic social teachings Pope John XXIII's Pacem in Terris addresses the right to health care in paragraph 11


Tomorrow is the big day: House Representatives in Washington DC will vote on H.R.3962: Affordable Healthcare for America Act. I pray a sense of the common good will prevail and representatives will pass the legislation that will put America on the path to a long overdue reform of a badly broken healthcare system.

The vote will also put to rest, at least for a precious moment, the outrageous verbiage that has accompanied the public debate. I am weary of hearing that the USA has the best health care on the planet (it doesn't), that the bill is the beginning of a government takeover of healthcare in particular and any variety of freedoms in general, and that it will force providers and hospitals to perform abortions. These are just a few bits of misinformation that have me seeing red and ready for a break from tea parties and hateful speech comparing Obama and this administration to any number of social pariahs including Hitler, Mao, and Communism.

I started responding to the above issues in this blog, but I am still writing an hour and a half later. I will say this: The bill isn't perfect, but it is much better than what we have now. The public option is important because private companies have had decades to do what is right, and in many, many cases they have not. (Simple math: The more premiums, the less care, the more profits.) The poor and marginalized, children growing up in poverty pay a horrible price for our broken system. You may not want to fund abortion with taxes and health premiums (This bill has a non-discrimination clause for those doctors and hospitals that do not perform abortions...see link), but I don't want to fund executions, wars, military research, and immoral denial of services even to those who are insured, with my taxes or health premiums either.

This is not a perfect bill. It is not a perfect world. But, passing this bill is one step in beginning to reclaim in this country a sense of solidarity, a sense of the common good that is essential to a just society. It is also an essential part of the Catholic Church's teachings on social justice.
It is time to do something. On Saturday, for the first time in sixty years the full house will vote on a healthcare reform bill. May the common good win.



11. But first We must speak of man's rights. Man has the right to live. He has the right to bodily integrity and to the means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and, finally, the necessary social services. In consequence, he has the right to be looked after in the event of illhealth; disability stemming from his work; widowhood; old age; enforced unemployment; or whenever through no fault of his own he is deprived of the means of livelihood. (8) from Pacem in Terris
 Read More