Cardinal Cupich of Chicago has been reminding us that Pope Francis gave us a powerful image for Church when he likened it to a field hospital.
Got me thinking about the TV series MASH 4077 and its zany crew. And I couldn't help but realise just what a wonderful image it is.
No neat Emergency Room crew here, running a slick corporate medical clinic. Rather an unlikely bunch of the good, the bad and the ugly.
Yes, there's the kindly Father Mulcahy whose seminary training would have done little to prepare him for the dramas of the Korean conflict. His "parish" was far removed from the routines decreed by diocesan guidelines and episcopal pronouncements. For him, the gospel was the only handbook he could rely on. He had to learn the hard way to accept people as they are and to journey with them where he found them.
Margaret and Frank displayed the weakness of human nature in their marital infidelity and clandestine lust. Ambition too, and forever seeking to take advantage of others to further their own ends. But for all that, they were part of the team and when it counted could be healers and life-givers.
Radar O'Reilly reminds me of the indispensable "little people" in the church. In his own quiet way, he is the one who gets things done and who really keeps the unit humming along. He doesn't get much credit for it; is pushed and pulled and used; has no authority yet knows how to achieve what needs to be done. Without Radar I doubt that MASH 4077 would have survived.
What can we say about Klinger? Let's just be reminded that the misfits of the world should find a home in the church as much as the rest of us. And not just to be cared for. They have their own contribution to make if only we accept them and give them scope. How often Klinger rescued situations in the MASH stories!
Cupich and Francis both draw attention to another aspect of the image of Church as field hospital.
It's not just about having a well equipped centre with all the latest equipment and bundles of bandages waiting for patients to come in for treatment. In fact our near-empty churches remind us that "patients" don't often turn up for our scheduled services. No. The field hospital has another function -- one that wasn't highlighted so often in the TV series.
As important as the doctors and nurses and field hospital staff are the paramedics who are sent out by helicopter to rescue the wounded in the field. They treat them on the battlefront, stabilise them for transport back to the field-hospital. But often their patients don't come back with them. Patched up, they choose to remain out there in their messy world. The paramedics equip them to get on with life whilst always knowing that the field hospital is there as a resource if ever they decide they need it. Yes, the church has to see to it that it is "missionary", going out and ministering to people in their daily lives; not just sitting at home and waiting for them never to come looking.
I guess the trick question in all of this is: who from MASH 4077 am I ????
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