Jesus Confronts the ‘Specialists in Failure’ and its Relevance to the Archdiocesan Assembly

Painting: The Gerasene Demoniac by Sebastian Bourdon (1653)

José Mourinho once described his rival football manager Arsène Wenger as a "specialist in failure".

That remark was very cutting because it was simultaneously an attack on the manager personally and also on the fans and management who seem used to losing.

Image credit: PA Sport

In the trilogy of Gospel readings in Mark, for week 4 of Ordinary Time, Jesus confronts the "specialists in failure" of his own time.

In the story of the Gerasene demoniac, we see the "specialists in failure" at work.

"no one could secure him anymore, even with a chain; because he had often been secured with fetters and chains but had snapped the chains and broken the fetters, and no one had the strength to control him." (Mark 5:3-4)

In the story of the healing of Jairus daughter, we see more specialists in failure at work

"after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact, she was getting worse." (Mark 5:26)

Jesus healed the demoniac and the women with the haemorrhage. He also healed the daughter of Jairus, befuddling the specialists who insist that she is dead.

Jesus, unlike José Mourinho was truly the "special one". But for the specialists, it's not necessarily good news.

Someone being able to succeed at a problem that has befuddled others, may not necessarily be appreciated. Because it may show that the experts were probably not that great after all. In a powerful literary sequence, we read in Mark's gospel that "those who had witnessed it reported what had happened to the demoniac and what had become of the pigs." (Mark 5:16) Something astonishing has just happened. Mark builds up the dramatic tension. And he announces the crowd's bewildering decision.

"Then they began to implore Jesus to leave the neighbourhood." (Mark 5:17)

We prefer our pigs and our failure. Rather than celebrate the person who has brought success.

After all, when the person who succeeded was not an expert appointed by us, or a (foreign) consultant hired at great cost, but is simply "the carpenter's son" (Mark 6:3) it challenges the local community's myopia. We missed that gem in our midst.

Hence, “A prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house”; (Mark 6:4)

And the Gospel's verdict was very severe:

"he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them." (Mark 6:5)

As we approach the Archdiocesan Assembly, I can't help but ask if there is a similar dynamic at work.

You will hear laments of failure, youth leaving after confirmation, RCIA people falling away, Catholics being stingy with their money. Nobody is taking over a particular ministry which is becoming moribund with the usual tired faces. The list goes on.

But if you hear success stories of ordinary Singaporean Catholics, from the ground up, living in Yishun, Payer Lebar, Serangoon, Jurong

Not a Jason Evert or a Scott Hahn or some famous or powerful Catholic celebrity, will we say "the Lord has sent workers to the harvest, blessed be the name of the Lord" or will we also "beg them to leave your neighbourhood"?

The letter to the Hebrews warns Christians to be careful that “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled.” (Heb 12:15)

Jesus was not bitter when he was told to leave.

But he could not help being "amazed by their lack of faith" (Mark 6:6)