Homily- Sunday - 30 June 2024 – XIII Week in Ordinary Time (B)- Rev. Dr. Patrick Mathias SDB
Sunday
- 30 June 2024 – XIII Week in Ordinary Time (B)
Mass
Readings: Wis 1:13-15; 2,23-24 Ps 29
2 Cor 8:7.9.13-15 Mk 5:21-43
Key
verse to Meditate: "My little daughter
is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be
made well, and live" (Mk 5:23).
Dear
Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,
The
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time calls us to place our faith in Jesus, the
giver of life and healing. God has created us for life, not for death. Those
touched and healed by Christ Jesus have already overcome selfishness and death,
beginning to live a life of gr
ace in God. This Sunday's Gospel presents two
miracles of healing involving two women, illustrating Jesus as the Lord of life
and power. One is a twelve-year-old girl at the beginning of her life, and the
other is a woman who had suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years (Mk 5:25),
potentially seen as nearing the end of her life. Both were in extreme suffering
and facing death, beyond human help (vv. 23 and 26). However, where Jesus is,
there is always healing, life, and salvation. The synagogue leader's daughter
was saved by her father's faith, while the woman suffering from hemorrhages was
healed because of her own ardent faith (vv. 34 and 36).
The
first reading from the Book of Wisdom
introduces the theme of this Sunday's liturgy of the Word: God as the giver of
life. The author of Wisdom emphasizes that God created human beings and all
things to exist, not to be destroyed. God is the source of life, not death. In
the Book of Acts, after healing the lame man at the temple gate, Peter tells
the Jews that they had killed the author of life (Acts 3:15). Genesis 1:26-27
reveals that God desired to create human beings in His image and likeness:
"Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness" (Gen 1:26).
The author of Wisdom reiterates this, emphasizing that God created human beings
in His image and likeness to live and to live for God alone.
The Second Reading
In today's second reading, St. Paul tells the
Christian community that Christ, the author of life, embraced poverty for our
sake: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was
rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might
become rich" (2 Cor 8:9). Sharing is the hallmark of a Christian disciple.
The follower of Christ does not amass wealth but desires equality in the
distribution of material wealth. Building on this great lesson, Paul, in his
letter to the Philippians, references Christ, who became man, sharing His
divinity with us and making us all the sons and daughters of God: "Christ
Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality
with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a
bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men" (Phil 2:6-7).
The Gospel Reading: The First Miracle Story: Raising
of Jairus's Daughter
One of the characters that attract our attention in
today’s gospel is the synagogue leader, a man filled with faith. He realized
that only Jesus could save his daughter from death. So, he came and fell before
Jesus in utter surrender and faith: "My little daughter is at the point of
death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and
live" (Mk 5:23). He was requesting Jesus to hurry so that he could save
his daughter. Jesus promised him that He would go to his house. Meanwhile, the
healing of the woman with hemorrhages takes place.
As Jesus, followed by a crowd, proceeds to Jairus's
house, the news of the girl's death reaches her father and Jesus: "Your
daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?" (Mk 5:35). But
Jesus firmly tells the synagogue leader that even while others doubt, he should
remain steadfast in his faith: "Do not fear, only believe" (Mk 5:36).
He did believe in Jesus. Upon reaching the house, Jesus addresses the official
mourners and those who did not believe in Him, saying, "Why do you make a
commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping" (Mk 5:39). Then
Jesus took the child's father and mother, along with Peter, James, and John,
and went to the room where the dead child lay. Jesus affirmed the father's
faith when He took the girl's hand and said to her, "Talitha kum!"
(Mk 5:41), which means, "Little girl, get up!" (Mk 5:41). The next
verse says that immediately the girl got up and began to walk.
The Second Miracle Story: Healing of a woman suffering
from Hemorrhages
In the second miracle, the woman who had been
suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years was helpless and had given up hope
until she met Jesus. She had heard about Jesus and now He became her only hope
for healing. She believed that Jesus could help her. Disregarding the purity
rules, she slipped through the crowd and courageously touched the mantle of
Jesus, for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made
well" (Mk 5:28). Her healing was immediate, a reward for her unwavering
faith in Jesus: "Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her
body that she was healed of her disease" (Mk 5:29). Jesus also immediately
became aware that power had gone forth from Him, so He turned to the crowd and
asked, "Who touched my clothes?" (Mk 5:30). When the woman came
forward and confessed, Jesus blessed her, saying, "Daughter, your faith
has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease" (Mk 5:34).
For God, Nothing is Impossible
These two miracles prove that for God, nothing is
impossible (Lk 1:37). In these stories, we notice a strong evidential purpose.
When the woman suffering from hemorrhages touched Jesus, she immediately felt
complete healing in her body. At the same time, Jesus felt within Himself that
power (δύναμις, dunamis) had gone out from Him: "Immediately her
hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her
disease; immediately Jesus became aware that power had gone forth from
Him" (Mk 5:29-30).
The Power of the Lord was with Him to Heal
The miracles of Jesus in the Gospels demonstrate that
"the power of the Lord was with Him to heal." Luke makes a specific
remark about Jesus before the healing of the paralytic: "One day, while He
was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting nearby (they had
come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem); and the ‘power
of the Lord’ (dunamis kuriou) was with Him to heal" (Lk 5:17; Acts
5:16; 10:38). The 'signs and wonders' (semeia kai terata) performed by
the apostles and Paul in the Acts similarly demonstrate the outworking of the divine
dunamis with the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, now mediated by
invoking the name of Jesus (Acts 2:19, 43; 4:30; 5:12; 6:8; 8:6, 13; 14:3;
15:12). St. Paul indirectly refers to this in today's second reading,
emphasizing that though Jesus, as God, was full of power and might, He made
Himself simple for our sake: "For you know the generous act of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so
that by His poverty you might become rich" (2 Cor 8:9).
The
Significance of the Number Twelve
In
the first miracle, the evangelist notes the age of the girl as twelve years
after being raised from the dead (Mk 5:42). In the healing of the woman who had
been suffering from hemorrhages, the evangelist notes once again that she had
been suffering from this disease for twelve years (Mk 5:25). This number is not
given by chance; it holds great symbolic value, often linked to something that
is accomplished. We can recall the scene of Jesus going up to Jerusalem for the
festival at the age of twelve (Lk 2:42) and being lost and found in the temple.
It was there, at the age of twelve, that He made His first prophecy: He said to
them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in
my Father's house?" (Lk 2:49).
Jesus
Chose Twelve Apostles
Now
during those days, He went out to the mountain to pray; and He spent the night
in prayer to God. When day came, He called His disciples and chose twelve of
them, whom He also named apostles (Lk 6:12-13). The twelve always accompanied
Jesus, and He often took them aside to instruct them (Lk 8:1; 9:12; 18:31).
Referring to Judas and the other apostles, they were specially marked with the
phrase "one of the twelve" (Mk 14:10, 23, 43; Lk 22:3, 47). At the
end of feeding the five thousand, the disciples gathered twelve baskets of
broken pieces of bread and fish (Mk 6:43). When Peter asked about the final
reward for leaving everything and following Jesus, He promised him they would
be judges over the twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel: "Jesus
said to them, 'Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of
Man is seated on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also
sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel'" (Mt 19:28).
In the Book of Revelation, the end time is symbolized by the twelve gates of
the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev 21:12-21). In Revelation, Mother Mary is shown to
be crowned with twelve stars (Rev 12:1). In the Gospel of John, when the
disciples object to Jesus going to Judea again, Jesus tells them that the day
has twelve hours: "Jesus answered, 'Are there not twelve hours of
daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the
light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is
not in them'" (Jn 11:9-10).
Points for Personal Reflection
Jesus is the only one who can free me from the evils of body and mind.
As human beings, when we face sickness and death, which are beyond our control
and capacity, if we possess faith, we can experience the healing power of the
Lord. Though we may not always be healed or have our desires granted in prayer,
let us believe that God comes to meet us and heal us at the proper time.
- Do I
trust Jesus like Jairus, who believed in Jesus even in the most helpless
situations?
- Do I
hear Jesus's words telling me to get up from death to life?
- Jesus's
power to heal and make whole is available to me all the time. Have I
experienced the healing power of Jesus?
- Do I
possess a genuine faith like the woman who suffered from hemorrhages for
twelve long years? Do I have the courage and faith to come near to Jesus
and touch Him?
Jesus is looking at each one of us today, asking only one thing amidst
life’s struggles: not to lose faith in God. "Do not be afraid any longer,
only believe" (Mk 5:36).
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