M ark 5:21-43 [alternate reading for the commemoration of the Apostles Peter and Paul: Matthew 16:13-19] And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him; and he was beside the sea. (22) Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Ja'irus by name; and seeing him, he fell at his feet, (23) and besought him, saying, "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." (24) And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. (25) And there was a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years, (26) and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. (27) She had heard the reports about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. (28) For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well." (29) And immediately the hemorrhage ceased; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. (30) And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the crowd, and said, "Who touched my garments?" (31) And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, `Who touched me?'" (32) And he looked around to see who had done it. (33) But the woman, knowing what had been done to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. (34) And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?" (36) But ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." (37) And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. (38) When they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, he saw a tumult, and people weeping and wailing loudly. (39) And when he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a tumult and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." (40) And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside, and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. (41) Taking her by the hand he said to her, "Tal'itha cu'mi"; which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise." (42) And immediately the girl got up and walked (she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. (43) And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
     
     
* Meditation by Larry Gillick, S.J.
Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality

PREPRAYING

We here in North America are celebrating holidays of independence this coming week. Canada remembers its becoming a self-governing dominion and the United States of America recalls its declaring self-rule independence from Britain. These were both a long time ago and the years can dim the sense of excitement experienced before our times.

We prepare to celebrate our independence from the dominion of darkness and death. We celebrate in the Eucharist our freedom from the demands of our own self-ruling ourselves and others. Each nation has had to find its identity through many struggles. We recall the saving events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

We can pray these days with the little experiences of our being saved and healed from the deaths of our spirits. We can pray with the excitement of living as freed people of God’s family.


REFLECTION

A ny time we read from the Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Scriptures, we listen softly and slowly to each word, as we would listen to a good poem. Many subjects are pondered in its pages of the sage’s thoughts. The writings relate life’s experiences to the designs of the creating God. There are few direct answers to many of life’s questions. There are provocative promptings to our coming personally to a more familiar relationship with this same God of mystery.

The question addressed in this section from which we hear today, from the Book of Wisdom, is about death and the presence of evil in the God-created world. It is difficult to find a satisfactory answer to our many questions in this tension between God’s creative love and the destructive works of evil. The opening verse is a strong statement which gets our attention, but heightens the tension, “If God is so good, why is there such suffering and death?”  There are several “faith-statements” inserted, but no easy answers.

Envy is the work of the devil and it leads to death for those who experience its deadly fruit. The spirit of this reading rests on the belief that God creates good, Evil is envious of that goodness and those who live in that tension between gratitude and envy make a choice. God respects human freedom to make the decision for dependence and domination, or freedom and life.

The Gospel has two sections; a story within a story, but both sections form one strong statement. Jesus has the power to heal. We saw last week that Jesus had the power to calm the winds and the waves. The apostles came to Him in their desperate need. In this week’s Gospel reading, two persons come in similar conditions of fearful need. Jairus’s daughter is sick. While Jesus and the crowd are on their way to Jairus’ house, a woman who is ill and desperate for a cure reaches out to touch his clothing.

Jesus continues His walk to cure Jairus’ daughter, but on the journey a report arrives that she is already dead. Storms, illness, and now death have become the tension for His loving, calming touch. Despite the objections of the grieving crowd and the laughter of derision when He tells them that the girl is not dead, but sleeping, Jesus enters the house, prays a healing word, and announces His wish for her to “arise” which she does. These three scenes begin the long display within Mark’s Gospel, that Jesus is Lord of all creation and His dominion is for the living of life more freely as it was originally created.
     
Jesus is doing His work of bringing life back to real life. Jairus and the woman with an illness, both come to Jesus in conditions of body and spirit which they both wish were different. One has a sick daughter, one is sick herself, but both would rather meet Jesus as spectators to some other kind of event or healing of some body other than theirs. Jesus loves them the way He finds them, but loves them also enough not to leave them the way He has found them. We have then, the usual Jesus presentation displayed in Mark’s Gospel. Jesus is Lord of heaven and all is subject to Him on earth; its powers of religious office and human sickness.

Jairus is a synagogue official and he comes in his need from within the synagogue to reach out to Jesus. The woman has a hemorrhage which according to the Book of Leviticus,(15, 19-30) renders her impure ritually and relationally. Jesus meets them both and credits them for their faith in Him. All were “astounded” at the physical healing, but Jesus came to heal creation from the domination of evil in its deeper forms. Jesus is not a spectacle meant to astound, but bring about the “arise” from the inner pains of spirit and soul.  

Jesus is our revolution, our declaration for independence from darkness, and domination from the purely physical. Our celebration of faith is the remembering who we are by His touch. His domination of us is freeing us to arise, live real lives, as the little girl did, by walking around again. We have our impurities, our deadlinesses and our faith in Him Who came to give His Life for us and to us.

He came to save us not to solve the very popular questions about our belief in a loving God when that very God allows bad things. We have the independence to be dominated by the natural desire and then demands to know. We do have the freedom to choose our dependencies and Jesus seems to be a healthy One.

O bless the Lord, my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. --Ps. 103, 1

Keeping Oaths


T his is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that wrath will not fall on us for breaking the oath we swore to them.   ~ Joshua 9:20

Joshua and the people of Israel were in the Promised Land. They were winning battles and were feeling good about their progress. One day a band of Gibeonites came by dressed as travelers in order to fool Joshua. They wanted to make Joshua believe they were merely travelers instead of enemies. The Gibeonites asked Joshua to make a peace treaty with them.
     
Since Joshua chose to believe their story, he did just that. That was a mistake on Joshua's part. The Bible says Joshua did not inquire of the Lord about the Gibeonites. This forced Joshua to uphold the peace treaty with the Gibeonites, even though it was made under false pretenses.
     
Keeping our oaths before the Lord is a serious matter. One might think that Joshua had every right to consider the agreement with the Gibeonites null and void since it was done on false pretense. However, Joshua knew how God viewed oaths. He knew that a man's word, once it was given, should be good as done. There was no reversing it. He also knew that if he did not keep his oath, he was subject to God's disfavor, which meant his ways would not be blessed.
     
Whenever we become a child of God, we represent Him. When His children follow unrighteousness, He takes this personally.