M.A.S.H.

Seeing the church as a field hospital treating major wounds

07/28/2018

Matthew 13:24-30 Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. "The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?' He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' His slaves said to him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, "First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn."'

Several years ago Pope Francis described the Catholic Church in radical and even revolutionary terms, by saying, “I see the church as a field hospital after battle.” That description helped me see the church, and especially my job as a priest, in a whole new light. Bishop Robert Barron shined that light brighter when he explained what the pope meant. The auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles said: “No doctor doing triage on a battlefield is going to be fussing about his patient’s cholesterol or blood sugar levels. He’s going to be treating major wounds and trying to stop the bleeding.” Bishop Barron went on: “What we find today, the pope is implying, are millions of people who are, in a spiritual sense, gravely wounded…They require, therefore, not the fine points of moral doctrine, but basic healing.”

Did you ever watch that popular television show called “M.A.S.H.” MASH is actually an acronym that stands for medical, army, surgical hospital. These small units consisted of around 10 doctors, 12 nurses, and roughly 90 enlisted soldiers. They were deployed close to the front lines of combat so were themselves in constant danger, and they had to be able to pack up and relocated within 24 hours. They were very mobile. They became prevalent and popular in the Korean War and greatly reduced the mortality rates of wounded soldiers from 40 percent in World War II to 2.5 percent in the Korean War. The pope is suggesting that perhaps the best description of the church is as a MASH unit because people are dying on the front lines of spiritual battle, and it’s the church’s job to provide the spiritual surgery that will save them.

Jesus seems to offer a similar analogy in the gospel today in his parable of the weeds and the wheat. In the parable a field of golden wheat is also sown with pernicious wheat. So far, the meaning is clear: the wheat represent saints while the weeds stand for sinners. When the workers offer to pull up the weeds, however, the landowner makes a surprising observation, saying: “No, if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest time, then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, ‘First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.” I’m sorry for mixing metaphors this morning, but I believe Jesus teaches his disciples to see all people, weeds and wheat, sinners and saints, as wounded soldiers on a battlefield. It is not their job on the front lines to fret about minute moral rules and regulations, like triage doctors don’t ask about a soldier’s cholesterol or his or her blood sugar levels. But rather they keep them alive until they get home to a regular hospital. In other words, try to see the church, the house of God, as a MASH unit on the front lines.

My friends, there is a very practical and very urgent application of seeing the church as a field hospital treating major wounds. I think this is one reason, perhaps the major reason, why Catholics are leaving the Church to join non-denominational churches. Do you know any Catholics who have jumped ship out of the Bark of St. Peter into other evangelical churches? It’s because in those ecclesial communities people’s major wounds are being treated, and a person’s deepest wound is the lack of a personal, intimate friendship with Jesus. Sherry Weddell, who writes about this central need, put it succinctly: “The majority of Catholics in the United States are sacramentalized but not evangelized.” She went on to elaborate: “They do not know that an explicit, personal attachment to Christ – personal discipleship – is normative Catholicism as taught by the apostles and reiterated time and time again by the popes, councils and saints of the Church” (Forming Intentional Disciples, 46). People are dying on the front lines of spiritual warfare because we are not providing the spiritual surgery they need to heal their deepest and most deadly wound: the lack of a personal relationship with Jesus. That constitutes the fundamental difference between the weeds and the wheat.

In short, try to see the church as a field hospital, a MASH unit close to the battle lines, welcoming all the wounded, rather than a fancy restaurant for fine dining where only a relative few are fortunate enough to find a seat.

Praised be Jesus Christ!