First Reading: Wis 1:13‐15, 2:23‐24
Second Reading: 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13‐15
Dear friends we are in the Thirteenth
Sunday of the Ordinary Time. As mortal beings we all face death one day. We
have two kinds of death; one is bodily death and the other one is spiritual
death. Among these two, bodily death is inevitable and unescapable whereas
spiritual death is more of personal choice. In the first reading, we hear about
death from the book of wisdom. Reading those passages we may seem to consider
it as reference to bodily death. But they are not, those passages reveal the
cause of one’s spiritual death: SIN. Most of us understand this particular passage
by relating it to our bodily death. It is because the bodily death opens the
gate to gain the reward of spiritual death. Even after dying spiritually a
person may continue to live on this earth for many years without being aware of
his/her spiritual demise. The bodily death is the revelation time for the soul
to know its real state. This kind of arrangement by God for the soul has both
the advantage and the disadvantage. The advantage is that the spiritually dead
person still has the chance to rise again as s/he is physically alive in this
world. S/he has opportunity to repent, confess and make penance. The
disadvantage is that the general hope of living long – until a considerable
older age – encourages the one to persist in spiritual death. The hope of having
sufficient time to repent and make amends puts the person into spiritual sloth.
To these people, who have hope of getting time in the future for conversion and
repentance I would like to ask why they
fail to have hope in the Lord to lead a virtuous and holy life in the face of
dominant evil? Yes, it is possible to lead a holy and virtuous life amidst
predominant evil around us. To these people today’s gospel is addressed.
In the Gospel we have two
healing miracles performed by Jesus. Both miracles are result of faith: i) the
faith of Jairus effects the resuscitation of his daughter from death and ii) the
faith of the woman with haemorrhage effects in her instant healing. Jairus is a
prominent leader in the synagogue who enjoys great respect among people because
of his role in the synagogue. He comes and kneels in front of Jesus for the
healing of her daughter who is at death bed. He symbolizes our need to pray
fervently and humbly in the time of utter helplessness. Jairus is happy to
bring Jesus to his house but would he be patient enough to see all the drama
that would be taking place on the way? How could a man who is keen on getting Jesus
as soon as possible to save her daughter from death patiently witness long
enquiry that Jesus does with the woman who gets healed instantly from
haemorrhage? Jairus does it. He waits patiently for Jesus’ time. Yes, His
dearest and urgent need is not ruling out the need of the other. Jesus has
concern for all. Jesus has to heal Jairus daughter as well as woman with
haemorrhage. Jairus’ deepest concern in getting his intention to be fulfilled has
no selfish nature. He patiently waits for Jesus’ time. Jairus knows that there
is hardly any is time left to save his daughter, more so when servants come and
inform him of her daughter’s death. But amidst all these seemingly impossible
situation Jairus never loses faith.
Now let us turn to the woman
with haemorrhage sickness. Many people who follow Jesus to see what He would do
in Jairus’ house are not bothered about their state of life. They represent
people who search for miracles and evidences to have faith. They are spectators
who consider themselves very wise because they are convinced that placing faith
after having much evidence is the right thing to do. In reality they are
absurd, the woman with haemorrhage is the real wise person. She had heard about
Jesus which has drawn her to meet Him. But her coming toward Jesus is same like
Jairus. She comes to get healed – not to test Jesus. She is going behind Jesus not
to see what He would do in Jairus house, after which she could make a decision
to get help from Him. No, she is preoccupied with her faith. She has no doubt
in Jesus. Having spent all that she had on many physicians, only thing she is
left with is: her FAITH. She has neither money to get healed, nor strength to
continue living in that painful sickness. In this poor condition she could not
be distracted by noisy crowd that surrounds Jesus. This is the key point to
take away from this gospel reading. When we leave everything that distract us
and focus only on Jesus and our need to be healed by Him, we would surely gain necessary
grace. The trust in which the woman touched Jesus caused her to get healed instantly.
The patient faith and the hope of Jairus against hopeless situation pulls Jesus
to raise her daughter from death. This miracle too happens with the touch of
Jesus.
Most people come to church
regularly, communicate Jesus in the Eucharist but hardly anyone is touched by
Him. He comes to us wholly in that tiny host but we remain just the same as we
entered the church before the liturgy. It is not the failure of Jesus in the
Eucharist, rather it is the faithlessness of us who receive Him without hope
and distracted faith. One needs to admire at the courage the haemorrhage woman exhibits
after getting healed. Her reluctance to say about her sickness to Jesus and
social condition which stigmatizes her on the account of her sickness keeps her
silent, but she gets courage to speak about her condition after receiving the
healing grace from Jesus. This is what happens in us when we get touched by
Jesus in the Eucharist. May we persistently pray for our urgent need with the
hope that Jesus would act not in the time we expect Him to be but in His time.
Let our faith lead us to touch Him with the undistracted faith and help others
to get His healing touch.
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