Compassion as a Subversive Activity: Illness, Community, and the Gospel of Mark

To Dr. David Urion s question, How can I help you? the father of the young boy with autism responded in a small voice that choked back some tears, Be with us. Keep us company. This is so lonely. This book is part of Dr. Urion s attempt to keep his promise, a promise which in fact we all made to this family and to many families on the day of their child s baptism. Baptism by baptism, in each of our faith communities, we vow to do everything in our power to support them in their life in God. Urion beckons us to contemplate the miraculous healings in the Gospel of Mark as subversive political acts of power that provide examples of restoring the integrity and the wholeness of the community, not just for the persons who are overtly healed but for the community as well. The tales of power he invites us to consider in this book reflect upon the extraordinary and paradoxical power of the powerless.