ANECDOTE: “DO NOT BE AFRAID: JUST HAVE FAITH.”
The story about Ann Jillian (an American singer and actress) is quite inspiring to hear. It is all about her victory over breast cancer. In the year 1985, the then 35 years actress made headlines when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. But the interesting part of her story is that one day, on her way to the hospital to check the nature of the growth which she had noticed; she stopped at St. Francis de Sales Church and read the inscription on the door: “The same Everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace then and put aside all anxious thoughts and imagination.” At this, she went into the Church and prayed for the strength to accept her ordeal in good fate. The radiant trust in God and peace of mind she maintained before and after the suggery became a big source of inspiration for all cancer patients. And just because she trusted in the words of Jesus given in the gospel today “Do not be afraid; just have faith”, her situation was bettered (Fr. Antony Kadavil).
One of the greatest anxieties of man is the fear of death. We know it, but we don’t ever wish to talk about it. It visits us everyday, yet we pretend not to notice it. Each time we see it or each it comes to our mind, our heart jumps. It is considered the worst enemy and no one wishes to neither have it as a guest nor construct neighborhood beside it.
From time immemorial it has been an enigma and no situation has been proffered to stop it. It has always been associated with the divine. And many who have ceased to believe in God felt that not to have stopped it from striking a loved one is a sign that God is not a loving Father as religion has always claimed. And those who still believe in God pray that he waves it away, and when it eventually occurs, they ask the question, God why? By consequence, Godis always seen as culpable in human suffering.
FIRST READING: WISDOM 1:13-15;2:23-24
Today the author of the book of Wisdom narrates what could be referred to as the origin of death with the intentionto debunk every suspicion and attribution of death to God. Firmly he insists, “God did not make death, neither does he delight in the death of the living.” The author is thinking simultaneously of physical and of spiritual death which are interconnected; sin is the cause of death, and physical death for the sinner is also spiritual and eternal death. He refers here to the account in Gen. 2-3 to highlight on the God’s creative intentions: human beings were made for immortality. Death and corruption was a puncture to creation; and by submitting to the power of sin man brought death upon himself. Although through sin man has become mortal in the flesh, yet by practicing righteousness, he will “assume” the immortality which was God’s original plan for him. It simply means that although man may die in the body (physical death) but he will live forever. But if by obstinacy, he lives in sin, he will die both in the body and in the spirit. This is what is referred to as eternal damnation. But above all, it is the desire of God that the man he has created lives forever. This is where this passage of the book of Wisdom shares something in common with the Gospel of Mark that we read today. God in Jesus shows himself as the author of life and a pro-lifer. By the virtue of the two miracles He will demonstrate that what he desires is life and not death.
SECOND READING: 2 CORINTHIANS 8:7-9.13-15
Generosity is an agent of life. Out of his generous love, God generates life. And because he generously loves, he does not desire the death of the living (message of the first reading). Jesus was so generous that he went about doing good. His generosity is demonstrated today in the gratuitous healing of the woman with hemorrhage and in the raising to life of the daughter of Jairus. And this life is not simply the life of heaven, some pie in the sky but a life which embraces even our physical, biological and emotional life.
Thus the exhortation of St. Paul to the Corinthians is of a moral standard. He asks them to give only from their surplus whereas the Christians of Macedonia even in their intense poverty had given well beyond their resources (2 Cor. 8: 2-3). Setting before them the example of Christ who was generous enough to the point of renouncing the glory and privileges which were rightly his in order to share to the full their life (v. 9),St Paul discretely invites them to imitate the generosity of their brothers in Macedonia.
GOSPEL: MARK 5:21-43
The link between the two miracles: In today’s Gospel we have what is often called a “Markan sandwich”. One story is encased or sandwiched between the beginning and end of another. Here, we have an unusual combination of two miracle stories, one contained within the other – a healing, and a restoration of life. The story of the woman with the flow of blood interrupts, and is sandwiched between the two parts of the account of Jairus’ plea for his dying daughter and its result. These miracles were worked by Jesus as rewards for the trusting Faith of a synagogue ruler and of a woman with a hemorrhage. Though the ruler may have trusted Jesus out of desperation, and the woman’s Faith may have been a bit superstitious, even their perhaps defective Faith was amply rewarded.
However, it was not for nothing that the evangelist Mark recorded these two miracles together. There is always a close connection between illness and death. Invariably, both of them are enemies and threat to human life. Illness is the night-side of life, and death is the disease that has no cure. Once we fall sick especially if the sickness is serious, it comes almost naturally to think that we are going to die.
FIRST MIRACLE
In this gospel narrative, we are told of a certain woman (name retained which means that she represents all persons who are in critical condition) who had suffered from Hemorrhage (a profuse discharge of blood as a result of a ruptured blood vessel or organ) for twelve years. Her condition was quite pathetic. She did not just bleed for 12 years, but she equally spent everything she had in order to secure healing. Constant bleeding for 12 years presents a kind of exaggeration in the account of Mark. However, the evangelist is more interested in telling his audience how serious and deadly her situation had become. She had virtually sought for healing everywhere, yet the condition proved abortive. We could say that she might have heard about Jesus before now. However what makes today’s story different is the fact that she decided to hear about Jesus with a different disposition of the mind. She also made an a priori faith-filled declaration: “If I even touch his garment, I will be healed.”
Mark records that the miracle was instantaneous. She touched and got healed immediately.
Who could imagine how such a serious pathology was cured instantly. Indeed 12 years suggests a prolonged years of suffering, of pains and of hopelessness. It suggests how pitiable the situation was. Reading through the eyes of Mark, we can say that her protracted condition was as a result of her trust and total dependence on scientific expertise. She thought little about what God can do. The insistence of Mark that she lost all she got in the process of seeking for healing suggests how hopeless her life had become. But Mark presents Jesus today not only as a healer but one who heals when we have spent all we have. In other words, he heals gratuitously. Introducing Jesus into her situation, Mark tells his readers that no condition can be said to be over if God has not yet declared it over.
SECOND MIRACLE
Jairus one of the rulers of the synagogue came to beg Jesus to heal her daughter who was at the point of death. It means that any moment from now she can drop dead. The miracle of the Hemorrhage interrupted the pace of Jesus. It delayed his movement such that while he was still on the way, news came that the little girl has died. The evangelist wished to state that the delay was factored in the divine plan. He presented the death of the little girl as another extreme situation worse than that of Hemorrhage. But for him, both cases are nothing compared with what Jesus can do. Jairus must have been devastated when he got the news of her daughter’s demise, but the words of Jesus, “Do not be afraid; only believe”, came as a consolation and a restoration of hope for him. Approaching the house shocked those who were weeping by the word, “she is not dead. She is sleeping”. For the mourners, the situation was an impossible one. It is unimaginable to revive it. But little did they know that no situation is extreme and impossible for God. When Jesus entered the room, he took the little girl by the hand and said to her, “Talitha Cumi”. It is the only language that death could hear. No amount of crying and mourning could touch the ‘heart of death’ except the word ‘Talitha Cumi’. She rose! We can imagine the joy of Jairus and his household. It can be likened to the joy of Mary and Martha at the resurrection of Lazarus in the chapter 11 of the gospel of John, as well as that of the widow of Nain in the chapter 7 of the gospel of Luke.
LIFE MESSAGE
The desire of God for us is life and not death. Jesus is the concrete fulfillment of this. When we feel that we are trapped in hopeless situation; when we feel that there is nothing again to live for; when we feel threatened by the various conditions of life, irrespective of the categories and the degrees, there is only one direction to look at. With Mark we learn that if we do not learn to involve God in our life, then we be quite disappointed with the solutions we seeks elsewhere.
In substance, the faith of Jairus and the woman teaches us that we must make a move if we truly need to encounter the Lord. God is not met in passivity but in active faith. The woman sought for him, and Jairus also sought for him. Whenever he finally steps in every situation that has kept us in extreme hopelessness will surely bow to his command. We just need to acknowledge that it is God alone who can restore us. Like the woman, the doctors only care but God in Jesus shows himself as our ultimate healer. We all need a trusting faith as an operational tool for divine healing. St. Ignatius of Loyola said, “We must work as if everything depends on us, but we must pray and trust as if everything depends on God.” The effectiveness of our prayer is our faith in the goodness and mercy of God. And this faith can only be gotten through constant prayer, constant reception of the sacraments and constant meditation on the word of God.
The message of the reading equally invites us to be pro-life people not only to those with empty stomach and naked body but also to those with dead situations. 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, support, and inspiration. It is in this way that we can play the role or Jairus mediating the dead situations of others through our thoughts and prayerful interventions.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, your heart is the fountain of love and mercy. You look with pity upon the misery of your people, and you never cease to come to the rescue of those who sincerely call upon your name in humility of heart. Grant that we who are often threatened by death and sicknesses may never lose sight of you. Save us from the sicknesses that oppress us and from an unprepared death, so that we may glory in your saving help, Who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.
PAX VOVIS!
