Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-34;
2 Cor 8: 7,9,13-15;
Mark 5:21-43
The gospel this Sunday, begins with the information that Jesus Christ crossed
over to the other side with his disciples. “Crossing over to the other side” is
reflected in several places in the gospels. Wherever we see it occurring there is
always an indication that something very important will be taking place. Our Lord
would always cross over to the other side to save a situation, to heal, to teach a
historic lesson or to show forth the active power of God. We saw him last Sunday
crossing over to the other side with his disciples when they encountered a storm
at the middle of the sea.
Life is generally filled with constant crossing over to the other side. Those who
refuse or fail to cross over to the other side often experience failure. Abraham
had to cross over to the other side before God fulfilled His promises to him
(Genesis 12:1). Joseph had to cross over to the other side to attain the height
God planned for him (Genesis 37:28) Moses and the people of Israel had to
cross over to the other side to get to the Promised Land (Exodus 14:21-22).
There are indeed many instances.
As Jesus our Lord crossed over, he healed a woman who suffered from a chronic
bleeding disease and returned the dead daughter of Jairus to life. These healings
teach us that Jesus willed life, and willed full life for all God’s children. The two
healings also reveal Jesus as a generous, kind and compassionate
God Who wills that men should live their wholesome lives fully. They also give
us further proof of the Divine power and the Infinite mercy of our Savior. These
miracles were worked by Jesus as reward for the trusting Faith of a synagogue
ruler and of a woman with a hemorrhage. Although the Faith of the ruler might
have been defective, and the woman’s Faith might have been a bit superstitious,
Jesus amply rewarded the Faith they had by granting them health and life.
As Christians, we believe that Jesus continues to heal us through his instruments
in the medical profession like doctors, nurses and medical technicians. Hence,
when we go to a doctor, we need to offer a prayer to Christ The Divine Healer,
that we may choose the right doctor, and that he or she will make the correct
diagnosis, prescribe the correct treatment and give us the right medicine. Let us
not forget the truth, that Christ still works wonders of healing. Let us also thank
God for the great gift of health and use it for helping those who are sick. As
members of the Church, we are not excused from our vocation to be healers.
We do our share of Christ’s healing mission by visiting the sick, by praying for
their healing, and by boosting their morale with our loving presence, words of
encouragement and inspiration. Thus, we may enable them to experience the
compassion of Jesus the healer.
When we look critically at the Gospel reading, we see that the stories have
several common features. One, Jairus daughter is 12 years old, and the other
woman is said to have been suffering for 12 years. Both of them are called
“daughter,” and both are in need of physical healing. The girl’s father is
encouraged to have Faith, and the older woman is praised for her Faith. The two
stories illustrate Jesus’ power over both chronic illness and death. In each
healing, Jesus shows his marvelous generosity by giving the recipients life and
salvation in addition to physical healing.
When we look at Jairus, he was the ruler of the synagogue, a well-respected
man in the local Jewish community. He was the administrative head of the
synagogue, the president of the board of elders and the one responsible for the
conduct of the services. He probably shared in the Pharisees’ prejudice that
Jesus was a heretic and a wandering preacher to be avoided. If so, the urgency
of his need and the helplessness of the situation prompted him to forget his
position, to swallow his pride and prejudice and to seek help from Jesus the
wandering wonder-worker. As for the woman, it seems she came to Jesus as a
last resort, after trying every other cure known in her day. The Mosaic Law (Lv
15:25-27) declared her unclean and shut her off from the worship of God and the
fellowship of her friends. That may be why she decided to try to touch the
tassels of Jesus' garment secretly. Jesus, like every other Jew, wore an outer
robe with four tassels on it, one at each corner--the badge of a devout Jew as
prescribed (Nm15:38-40).
The woman had been unclean and “unclean” actually became her name. She
was not supposed to touch or be touched because that would make a clean
person ceremonially unclean for the rest of the day. This woman heard that
Jesus was passing by. She reasoned that this same man who changed water
into wine, who cured the famous demoniac the other side of the sea could as well
make her clean. She marched out with faith to Jesus. But unlike Jairus she had
no easy access. However she was not discouraged. She struggled through the
crowd meaning to touch the helm of the garment of Jesus Christ. She believed
that she will be healed by doing so. We can imagine her plight, she was evidently
weak and frail, she could have been pushed down several times in the bid to
touch our Lord, she could have been insulted, scolded, antagonized, but she did
not relent until she touched the helm of the garment of our Lord. When she finally
did she was instantly healed!
The touch Jesus received was significantly different from the ones he had been
receiving so he stopped and asked who touched me! This might have appeared
to be a senseless question as the disciples established. This was because the
crowd was so much and many people were pressing round him. But Jesus was
right; someone actually touched him in a way that was different from others.
Among all in the crowd only one person purposefully made a touch of faith on
Jesus Christ. The woman who was known as “Mrs Unclean” or “Madam with the
issue of blood” was the only one who made a touch of faith on our Lord Jesus
Christ. Upon this faith motivated touch, the woman in question instantly received
her healing. The pain of twelve years turned into pay, the challenge of twelve
years became a chance, the stumbling block of twelve years became a stepping
stone, and the problem of twelve years became a prospect.
Today, we are presented with so many lessons. Firstly there is need for us to
undertake the crossing over to the other side. Jairus left his house and crossed
over to meet Jesus. The woman with the issue of blood had to cross over the
teeming crowd in order to reach and touch Jesus. You may have been at this
side of hopelessness, you may have been at this side of despair, and you may
have also been at this side of fear, doubt and pride. This is the time for you to
cross over to the other side of faith and trust in God. Secondly you are crossing
over to the other side not like the crowd who went to make familiar and
accidental touch. You are crossing over to the other side so that you can make
the touch of faith. Jairus made a touch of faith and the daughter was healed. The
woman with the issue of blood made the touch of faith and she was healed.
Using the woman with the issue of blood as an instance, she had faith and was
ready to make a touch of faith, but she did not have easy access to Jesus. In our
time we have free and easy access to Jesus Christ especially in the Most
Blessed Sacrament, but how many of us touch (receive) with faith? Today we
have allowed the crowd of sin, the crowd of godlessness, the crowd of
worldliness to stand between us and our Lord Jesus Christ, the author of our
faith. Often we allow the crowd in form of tribulations to render us faithless and
thus unpleasing to God (Heb.11:6). It is always at the most trying times that our
faith can be gauged rightly.
As members of the Church, we are not excused from our vocation to be healers.
When a friend of ours is terminally ill, the skill of the doctors and their advanced
medical tools often become powerless. What the patient needs in such a
situation is our care, concern and prayerful presence, enabling them to
experience through us the love, compassion and mercy of Jesus. We do our
share of Christ’s healing mission by visiting the sick, by praying for their healing
and by boosting their morale through our loving presence, encouragement and
inspiration.
It’s true, Jesus does not expect us to raise someone from a physical death but
does He expect that we follow His example? He went out of his way and made a
trip to the official’s home to make sure this little girl was saved. Will we do that?
As we consider a situation where we have been separated from someone, will
we take the first step, as Jesus did? Do we say, “Well, that’s a different story. I
might have to swallow my pride because I wasn’t at fault. The other party was
unreasonable or made a hasty judgement and that caused the
misunderstanding?” Even if that is true, those are the situations in which Jesus
asks us to “follow His lead”. His example today is meant to guide us in our “real
life situations”. Everyone here is not in that situation but most of us occasionally
do make hasty decisions that adversely effect others around us…. a daughter or
a son, a parent, a spouse or a friend.
Yes, as He went out of His way to help the young girl, He is asking us to take the
first step! He is asking us to pick up the phone or to write a letter and try to “bring
to life a relationship that has died”. These are times when we can follow His
example but our pride often prevents us from TAKING that first step. We fear
rejection but fail to remember that Jesus experienced, for our sake, the most
ignominious rejection in the history of the world. His dying for us should give us
strength to analyze personal situations and realize Jesus will give us the strength
to find the courage we need to forget our pride and follow in His footsteps.
We must also analyze our relations with our God. We can become complacent
regarding our life as it relates to our real goal … eternity in Heaven. It is wise to
review that situation also. Does our faith life need to be “resurrected”?
Jesus’ miracle restored human life to a dead young girl. Should we go through
periodic checkups to determine if our spiritual life is dying? Our faith relation to
God should not be taken for granted. Our presence here this morning indicates
we believe what the Bible teaches us but is this relation as strong as it could be?
It’s not difficult to find out. There are not that many benchmarks. We heard, this
morning, from the book of Wisdom where it is written, “By the envy of the devil,
death entered the world, and they who belong to his world experience it.” We
don’t hear much talk about the devil any more but we certainly see the result of
his presence in our modern society. As an example, being involved in excessive
use of drugs and alcohol or involved in sex outside of marriage can place us in
jeopardy of being a “walking spiritual time bomb”. Jesus was a compassionate
man but He was also told us, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments.”
Also, our prayer life must be important to us to be sure our faith is a “living
reality”. How many minutes each day do we spend in prayer? There are 1440
minutes in a day. Can we spend 30 of those minutes saying a rosary, reading the
bible, attending a Mass? Those 30 minutes only represent 2% of each day.
Others in our society might scoff at such an idea but remember that in today’s
gospel Jesus extended Himself on a mission of mercy. He asked for no reward.
And what was the response He received? The crowd ridiculed Him when He
said, “The child is not dead but asleep.” That did not deter Him from His mission.
As He was concerned about the young girl’s life so, too, is He concerned about
our spiritual “life”. As we come to receive His body and blood, today, ask Him to
guide us and to give us the strength to improve our “spiritual life”. When the little
girl rose and walked, the crowd was utterly astounded. We, too, may be utterly
astounded at how much we can accomplish when we call upon Him for
assistance.
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