23 January 2019 - Wednesday of the 2nd week in Ordinary Time – Mark 3:1-6

     We continue to hear from the beginning of the book of Mark in our Gospel readings this week.  Yesterday, the Pharisees observed the disciples of Jesus picking up grain from the fields and eating it, accusing them of working on the Sabbath, a practice forbidden under Jewish law.  Today, the Pharisees are watching to see if Jesus is going to cure a man of a withered hand on the Sabbath, again forbidden under Jewish law and custom.  It amazes me how the Pharisees are always trying to trap Jesus, to get him into trouble.  They don’t see the joy and the wonder in what he is doing to proclaim God’s kingdom.

      Yet, contrary to the attitude that we see in the scribes and Pharisees, we see many devout examples of humility and faith in members of the community of saints.  Marianne Cope, the oldest of 10 children, was born in Germany in 1838 and was brought to New York state by her parents when she was still a baby. She was the oldest of ten children. Her parents struggled in their new country, so Marianne quit school after eighth grade to work in a factory to financially support her family. Despite the many challenges in her life, she entered religious life in 1862 as a professed Franciscan sister. She taught in German-speaking Catholic grade schools and became a school principal. Later, she and her order opened some of the first hospitals in that area of New York state.  In her 40s, when she was the superior general of her order, she was asked to send some of the sisters to serve in ministry in Hawaii.  Not only did she send 6 sisters, she went herself.  

        Sister Marianne and her Franciscans sisters worked in two hospitals, opened a home for the daughters of lepers, and, after then, they opened a home for women and girls on the island of Molokai when Father Damien was living out his last days after coming down with leprosy himself from his ministry with the lepers. Sister Marianne nursed Father Damien in his last dying days. They continued Father Damien’s ministry on Molokai.  Sister Marianne stayed on that island 30 years until her death in 1918.  She was canonized by Pope Benedict in 2012, three years after Father Damien himself was canonized.  Sister Marianne’s life and ministry stand as a testimony of faith for all of us more than 100 years after her death.  May we unite our prayers with her prayers today.