THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
27 JUNE 2021
Today’s
Gospel follows the Gospel from last Sunday.
Jesus and his disciples had been caught in one of those violent storms
on the Sea of Galilee coming from the Golan Heights. The disciples woke Jesus from his deep sleep
in the stern of the boat. They asked why
he did not care that they were perishing.
He immediately rebuked the storm, as he had rebuked demons. He calmed the sea, as he had calmed those who
had been possessed by demons. In this
action, he revealed to them that he is the Son of God. But he also rebuked them for their fear. It was their fear that caused them to lose
faith.
Jesus and
his disciples now reach the other shore of the Sea. Jairus, an important and well-known synagogue
official, expresses his faith that Jesus can cure his twelve-year-old daughter,
who is at the point of death. As Jesus
goes with him, a large crowd presses upon him.
They are obviously curious about what he will do. In that crowd is an unnamed woman from the
lower class. She has been suffering from
a painful flow of blood for twelve years.
Even worse, that flow of blood has made her ritually unclean and unable
to conceive a child. Isolated from
everyone who avoids her ritual uncleanliness, she is literally a walking dead
person. Showing incredible faith in
Jesus, she reaches out to touch his clothes.
She is healed immediately, but is startled when Jesus asks who touched
him. Instead of scolding her for
performing an unclean ritual act of touching him, he praises her for her faith
and tells her to go in peace.
When Jesus
reaches the house of Jairus, he finds that his daughter has died. The crowd laughs at him for saying that she
is sleeping. But he ignores them and
enters the house with Peter, James, and John.
Just as his true nature will be revealed to them in the Transfiguration,
he reveals that he is the Son of God by ignoring the purity laws and touches
the dead girl and brings her back to life.
Even though they are astounded by these miracles, they will not fully grasp
God’s love until the Father will raise Jesus from the dead.
We often think
that hate is the opposite of love.
However, the Gospels remind us that fear keeps us from responding to the
love of God in faith. Fear of drowning
kept the disciples from trusting that Jesus was present to them in the midst of
the raging storm. Fear sets in when this
unnamed woman is asked to reveal that she had dared to touch Jesus. Fear causes those mourning the death of
Jairus’ daughter to lose faith that Jesus could save her.
Jesus says
these same words to us. We often waver
in our faith when we are overtaken by fear.
Saint Paul addresses a fear that many of us have about embracing
stewardship as a way of life. He writes
to the Church of Corinth, whose members are blessed with many material
blessings. He argues that their surplus
of treasure can compensate for the needs of others. He asks them to be generous to the gracious
act he is undertaking. His gracious act
involves taking up a collection for the Church of Jerusalem, both impoverished
and persecuted. He reminds them that the
Macedonians had been extremely generous, despite their limited amount of
wealth. He tells them that the reason
for giving is rooted in the incredible gift of Jesus Christ, whose gracious act
caused him to empty himself of being rich to be poor, taking on our human
nature.
We can be hesitant to give
ourselves as stewards of time, talent, and treasure, because we fear that
giving away those realities will deplete all we have. Like the woman afflicted with the hemorrhage,
we can approach Jesus with the confidence that he will provide for our
needs. Like Jairus, we can trust that
the one who raised his daughter can raise us from death through his
resurrection. Like the disciples in the
boat, we can learn that the Lord is with us in the roughest of times, inviting
us to imitate his calm confidence in the love of his Father.
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