Jesus and Mental Illness

Mark 3:20-21

Jesus came with his disciples into the house. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” 

Okay, I will admit it, some passages are easier to write about than others. Mark 3:20-21 is not one of those easy passages. The Church is not having any mercy on people like me that want to expound on what is being said in the Gospel when they give me the passage where the relatives of Jesus, they don't say who, are calling Him insane. What do we make of this?  Two things come to mind, misunderstanding and mental illness.  Let's touch briefly on both of these subjects. 

First, mental illness is something that carries with it a stigma that follows a person around for their whole life. I remember back in the 1970's, there was a senator that was being considered to be nominated for vice president.  He was a good candidate, well respected, and almost a shoe in except when it was revealed that he suffered from depression.  He was dropped from consideration. 

There was a Catholic man that I knew that once said that there is no way a Christian should ever be depressed, that if they were a real Christian the joy of having Jesus in your life would conquer all.  What a load of dingo's kidneys. We do not blame a person with cancer who has been cured, there is no stigma in being one whose body at one time had turned against itself and had received healing through the medical profession. As a matter of fact, we make a big deal over the fact that they are survivors, and we should, it is a great thing to best a killer disease.  But, let a person have an imbalance of serotonin in their brain and a case of depression that is cured by taking an antidepressant and the whispers behind their back will always be there.

Heaven help someone if they are bipolar!  Their disease is hard enough to treat without attaching a stigma to them.  Our society has little time and little mercy for the mentally ill.  In former years there were hospitals that would treat people with mental illness but today, our insurance company driven medical care system has forced these care centers to close because they will not pay for patient's care.  Please, pray for those who are suffering mental illness.  If you've never been depressed, you cannot imagine the dark hole that your life becomes and you feel ashamed and alone.  That loneliness, the friendlessness, the dark hole makes everyday life a terror and no one understands.  

Be a cool drink of water for someone with mental issues and even if you cannot draw them out of their hole, at least do not dig it any deeper.  A gentle word, a smile, a sincere offer to help, and understanding if the person is not ready for your helping hand, that is what we need here.  In other words, bring the Christian in you out to help those in such desperate need. 

It goes without saying that Jesus was not insane.  As a matter of fact, out of the billions of people that have lived on this earth, he is the poster boy for sanity.  His message was to love one another as God has loved you.  He cured the sick, drove out demons and his talent were on call during all hours of the day and night.  He must have looked a little bit haggard on this day for members of His family to call Him crazy.  He was misunderstood and if it happened to Him, it will happen to us in our Christian ministry.  Our devotion may seem strange to people.  Our beliefs may go against what is popular in the culture of death that we live in.  We must not let these misunderstandings get us down.  We have a message that the world needs to hear and we must speak it with great sincerity, great love, and most of all great confidence.  You must also remember that you are nothing more than a seed planter.  God will nurture what grows, perhaps using you, perhaps using other people.  Just spread the seed and watch as it grows, that is all you need to do, 

Purgatory can be likened to the mud-room before heaven.  We prepare ourselves to enter heaven by cleaning up attachments to things that don't belong in heaven. Please pray for the poor souls today. Thank you!