This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not have been set free on the Sabbath day from this bondage?
It is very interesting that our Lord makes this point by way of a question,
and he does so precisely because he is pointing out to them
that it is on the Sabbath day when he has sacrificed for all humanity
that the bondage Satan holds over us all will truly be broken,
that bondage symbolized by the woman who was stooped down,
or as the Latin quite literally means, a beholder of the dirt,
or one who can only look upon the earth.
And so she describes very perfectly the state of fallen humanity,
unable to look to the heavens, unable to glorify its God under the weight of original sin.
Our Lord says very clearly of this woman that her affliction was given to her by the evil spirit himself.
He does not, however, say that she was personally culpable for it,
and so he indicates that Satan is even given power over us in the flesh.
He is allowed to assail our body as he assailed the body of Job.
But for this woman, it was a trial and a tribulation,
and there seems to be every indication she did not despair of this,
for the Lord doesn't even ask of her about her faith,
because apparently she had faith in the Messiah,
and so she had heard of his healings, those healings that she could not see.
She heard him preach this day, even though she could not behold his face,
because she was completely bent over, completely leaning towards the earth,
and hence signifying the fall of mankind in his tendency to aspire for earthly delights,
earthly pleasures, and earthly honors.
But this day the mercy of God touches her, and in her it touches all of humanity,
and we see very clearly in the response of the Pharisees and the scribes the sin of ingratitude.
And so the Lord asks each and every one,
each and every one of us, do we believe in the power of his sacrifice?
Do we believe that on the Sabbath, in the crucifixion of Christ,
we are truly delivered from the bondage of Satan?
And if we do, then we too will take up our cross each and every day,
uniting our sacrifices to the one sacrifice of Christ for our sake and for the sake of the whole world.
And so let us truly rejoice, because in today's gospel we learn that we have one deliverer,
and that deliverer is none other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
true God and true man who assumed humanity in order to deliver us from our sins by way of his eternal sacrifice.
And so we cannot be touched by Satan in the spirit,
even though the Lord allows him to try us through tribulations,
whether they be through illnesses, interior tribulations, exterior temptations, in all manners, in ways.
But if we...
If we, like this woman, turn to the Lord in spirit because she was unable to turn to him in the physical reality,
but apparently she always had her mind united and was looking forward to the Messiah to come,
and so she was given that reward.
And we too will experience the mercy of God if we always remember that what she longed for
has come, has delivered himself up to the crucifixion and death for our sake,
and has given us through the church,
until the end of time, the strength to assail, to do battle with our enemy, the devil,
that is, has given us his grace, for in and of ourselves we are not clothed with the weapons necessary to do battle with him.
But by the grace of God we can do all things because ultimately it is God in the flesh doing them in our humanity.
And so let us reflect always on the great mystery of being incorporated into the mystical body of Christ,
and let us not respond to his mercy as the hypocrites, the Pharisees, and the scribes.
Let us truly believe that God has power, and in his mercy he has the right to exercise that power
all days of the week, all hours of the night, at every time and in every place,
and that he has come not to the high places of this world, but to the high and the low places.
For in today's gospel we also learn that he comes to this poor woman,
but he also comes to the Pharisees and the scribes,
because he has come to deliver all of humanity from the bondage of Satan.
And so, where we see Satan having sway over human society and human institutes,
let us commend them to the care of God through his mother,
so that they too may come to know the mercy of the Lord as this woman came to know it this day,
and as we come to know it each and every day of our lives,
and most especially when we pray for her.
And so, if we do that greatest of all things in this world,
then we truly will be united with him for all eternity in the world to come.
And so, if we do that greatest of all things in this world,
then we truly will be united with him for all eternity in the world to come.