Readings: Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24; 2 Cor. 8:7,9, 13-15; Mk 5:21-43.
“I Came so that
they might have life and have it abundantly.” Jn. 10:10
1. A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day. The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room with net access, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, sent the e-mail.
2. Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston, a widow had just returned home from her husband’s funeral. He was a church minister who died following a heart attack. The widow decided to check her e-mail expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted. The widow’s son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read: To: My Loving Wife. Subject: I’ve arrived. Date: 9 July 2010. “I know you’re surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I’ve just arrived and have been checked in. I’ve seen that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was. PS: It is sure hot down here!!!” Even the union of husband and wife is till death do us part and no more! Each to his own in death, right?
3. Last Sunday we read about Job and his ordeal. We noticed that God did not give Job any justification for his suffering. Instead, Job was invited to see that suffering was within the mysterious design of the universe, where losses, setbacks, sickness, brokenness, pains, and disappointments had their place. The book of Job is an attempt to address the problem of evil in the world created by a loving God. In today’s first reading we hear that “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living…For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to his company experience it.” When we choose to do our will over and above the will of God, the source of our happiness, we choose death rather than life. Death is a way of life without God. The gospel, on the other hand, shows us that Jesus is the Lord of life. He tells us, “I Came so that they might have life and have it abundantly.” (Jn. 10:10). He told Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live.” (Jn. 11:25). Jesus is always in the business of saving life. We are told that Jesus “went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38). He restored the sight to the blind, made the lame walk, raised the dead, fed the hungry, and drove away demons from possessed people and preached a new way of life and initiated a kingdom of love, justice, and peace.
4. The gospel demonstrated Jesus’ generosity to heal the afflicted and the willingness of the sick to go to him for help. God will never do for us what we can do for ourselves. Jairus was a synagogue official, who, despite his exulted position humbled himself and knelt before Jesus pleading on behalf of his sick daughter. He was a man, a leader, influential and rich. In that crowd also was another sick person. A woman, who was socially, economically, and religiously unfit to be in the company of Jesus or in public for that matter. She was financially broke, after spending all her money on the doctors; she was ceremonially unclean because of her flow of blood, and thus unable to enter any synagogue. For her to get healing, she had to come in personal contact with the healer, but by so doing, she would defile the healer and annul his healing power. She could not ask Jesus for help because she was afraid; and so, with much courage and boldness, she touched his garment with the hope that she would be made clean. Her prayer was answered, and her flow of blood dried up instantly.
5. But then Jesus knew about the healing and demanded who the beneficiary was. With fear and trembling, she confessed what she had done. Jesus did not shame her but praised her courage and extoled her faith. The Psalmist tells us to “call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” (Ps.50:15). This reminds me of a story about the power of Jesus to save. According to an old legend, a man became lost in his travels and wandered into a bed of quicksand. Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, saw the man’s predicament and said, “It is evident that men should stay out of places such as these.” Brahma, one of the major gods of Hinduism, came on the scene and said, “You suffer because of your sins.” Next, Buddha observed the situation and said, “Let that man’s plight be a lesson to the rest of the world.” Then Mohammad came by and said to the sinking man, “Alas! It is the will of God.” Finally, Jesus appeared. “Take my hand, brother,” He said, “and I will save you.” The mercy of Jesus is always there for us if we will only take his hand and allow him to heal us. For He has come “to seek and to save what was lost.” (Lk. 19:10).
6. St. Paul reminds us that the generosity of Jesus should urge us to be generous ourselves. He pleaded in the second reading on behalf of the suffering poor in Jerusalem and urged us to be generous to others in imitation of the sovereign liberality of Christ who gave his life for the salvation of all. In urging generosity in support of others, however, Paul always leaves the individual disciple free to give to the extent that he or she feels moved. No one should be constrained ever to give to charity. Jesus is generous to us in every way. He gives us everything including himself; he wants us to reach out to him in all our trouble and distress. As we sing, “Abide with me, fast falls the eventide, the darkness deepens Lord, with me abide, when other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, oh abide with me.” May the Lord meet us at the hour of our needs and reach out and take our hands when we are in trouble and raise us as he did Jairus’ daughter. For with the Lord there is mercy and fulness of redemption. Amen.
Rev. Augustine
Etemma Inwang, MSP
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