Invaluable things have no price! 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Some time ago, before we, the Dominicans friars, discovered that we could cater food for the friary, each one of us used to take turns to cook for the whole community until the days when we started to show the first signs of malnutrition. Monday was my turn. I have to admit that I had never enjoyed punishing the brothers with my culinary experiments. Neither did they it.

One Monday, I was on my way to the market, when I saw a Pizza place. Suddenly my mind saw the light. Two pizzas could solve my second course problem in a matter of minutes. I entered the place full of confidence, happy to have found a fast and cheap way to solve my Monday crisis. I took a look at my favourite pizzas and saw the price. All my hopes were shattered. Two pizzas would have cost more than twice the usual budget for Monday dinner. I turned back and headed for FairPrice Supermarket to look for anything edible that could be cooked in ten minutes.

Now, why on earth were those pizzas so expensive? I admit it. I don’t like to pay. But I think I am not alone in this dislike. If not, why then that futile effort in luring customers under persuasive slogans: “Buy now, pay later,” “Buy three, pay one,” “Pay comfortably in installments?” How can anyone pay comfortably? Why then, that compulsive obsession in writing that “20 % off!” and “Free!” with the biggest fonts they can find in the printing press? I think somehow, someone told them the truth: we don’t like to pay.
Perhaps that’s the reason why I find the words of Isaiah most appealing.

“Buy corn without money, and eat at not cost, wine and milk. Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty: though you have no money.”

These words don’t come by easily these days. Isaiah wrote this words when the people of God were in exile. They were homesick, discouraged and dejected. The best thing God did to encourage them was to invite them to a banquet, a free one. I think God also knows we don’t like to pay.

Today’s gospel also talks about food and about buying. The disciples told Jesus to send the crowd away to buy themselves something to eat. Jesus thinks like God. It was better to give them something for free. But the disciples didn’t have enough, hence, Jesus entered the picture and satisfied everyone for free, and still, the leftovers could have fed another crowd. Jesus knows we don’t like to pay.

Some are impressed by the miracle of the multiplication. I think the miracle is not the multiplication but the division. Today’s world can do just as much. We could produce enough food to feed the entire planet twice. They make soil produce several harvests. They make trees double their production. They make chickens without feathers so that they grow faster and produce more meat at a lesser cost. Today we make bio-technological miracles, yet millions still cannot afford food. We have learnt to multiply. We still need to learn to divide fairly.

Like the disciples, we fail to satisfy the dispirited crowd. We still believe that good things are expensive things. And, the more expensive it is, the better that something is. However if we reflect for a while about really important matters… How much does a kilo of friendship cost? How much does a mother charge for her motherhood? How can you buy someone’s care?

Really important things are priceless for a reason. In fact, the moment you assign a monetary price to them they become cheap. If a mother would charge for motherhood, wouldn’t her motherhood have become less than real motherhood? If a friend charges us for his friendship, wouldn’t his friendship become cheap, even if he wants to charge millions?

Personal matters stop being personal the moment we tagged them with a number of dollars. Most people see prostituion as something wrong because it puts a price to the most intimate and personal act. Today in Singapore people are still asking whether kidneys should have a price.

Initially, theologians were reluctant to admit that one could licitly mutilate oneself and thus were reluctant to see organ donation as something ethical. After some years, it started to be clear that donating an organ was not direct mutilation, as in an act of lack of self respect, but in fact, it could be an act of charity, an act of self-donation, and therefore, not only permissible, but highly charitable or even heroic.

As Singapore starts to contemplate to pay heroes, it is good to realize that they will be heroes no more. That the heroic personal act of charity degrades into selling oneself the very moment they put a price to the organ they are giving away.

When it comes to human organs, there is a huge difference between donors and sellers. Donors are heroes, sellers are self-mercenaries. Donors engage in admirable personal acts. Sellers put price to their body parts, implying that their bodies have a price, which is tantamount to selling themselves.

Unfortunately in today’s dualistic culture, where the body has become something we have, rather than something we are, it is extremely easy to get confused. In fact, there is hardly a divisory line between something we have, and something we may sell.

The body can replace its own blood supply, but cannot generate another kidney. Irreplaceable body parts  are integral parts of our bodies. The body is not something we can dispose of, it is simply not ours– it is us. Selling it amounts to selling something personal. And personal things stop being personal the moment we transform them into merchandize.

Today’s version of Isaiah’s hopeful statement would be: “

“Get organs with no money, and live at not cost. Oh, come to health all you who are sick though you have no money.”