13TH SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME – B
Mark 5:21-43
What do we do when nothing else makes sense in life; when our feet bring us at the end of
the road facing an abyss?
In the gospel this
Sunday, we have two miracles interwoven with each other by faith. Jairus’
twelve year old daughter was dead and the woman was suffering with hemorrhage
for twelve years. Jesus, being the Master of life, showed His power and
mercy in response to the faith of Jairus and the woman. It was not just
about physical resuscitation nor cure, it was about encountering the Divine
that led to salvation.
Jairus asked Jesus to
“lay your hands on her that she may be saved and live.”
On the other hand the woman believed that “if I can just touch his clothes, I
shall be saved.” Jairus and the woman without them knowing it,
were looking for salvation though from different levels and
perspectives: both were looking for a physical cure.
Yet Jesus was offering more than what they were asking for: salvation! Jesus brought them to an encounter which would elicit their
faith response. This encounter brought Jairus and the woman in a
dialogue with the Author of life. Without this dialogue, the two miracles
would only be physical healing devoid of the extraordinary dimension of true
salvation. It was in this dialogue that Jesus brought Jairus and the
woman in a crescendo of faith from something primitive, magical and superstitious
to something organic and transcendental. Because of faith, Jesus brought
Jairus’ daughter and the woman back into the fullness of life.
When we reflect miracle
stories like Jairus’ daughter and the woman in the gospel today, it is not just
reading dead texts that appeal to the imagination. It is different from
reading a short story or a novel, fiction or true, spectacular they may
be. The miracles in the Gospel bid us to enter into the depth of
the story and we become part of it, not just as readers or listeners, but
active participants as we re-live it and suddenly it becomes alive. If
this is true, then how do we see ourselves in the story this Sunday?
Are you at the end of
your rope? Gasping your last breath? Nearly giving up? Or just a mere
spectator to life as it unfolds in the drama of your family and friends or
people around you? Do we need to experience the end of life’s road
before we finally realize that we are not in control but God? Do we really
need a tragedy in life before we start believing that God is real?
Or is it in the
ordinariness of life when we practice our faith that we encounter God in each
other. It is in the celebration of life when we could say that through
our pain, God is also in pain; through our laughter, we hear the laughter of
God!
St. Irenaeus says “The glory of God is
man fully alive!”
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