Reflections
for Sunday, July 1, 2012
It is belief in Jesus that changes our lives. The Gospel today gives us
miracles. The most important aspect of these miracles is not the physical
healing but the absolute belief of those asking for a miracle. Jairus
doesn't know where to turn to seek healing for his daughter. He is a
synagogue official. Taking up with Jesus would not have been a very good
thing for his career. We already know that the officials associated with
respectable Jewish practice were in general against Jesus.
Necessity can draw us to the Lord. We hear from others that Jesus is Lord
and can change lives and even work miracles. Others would tell us that it
is all a hoax. At some point in our lives, we must choose and make a
commitment.
The woman with hemorrhages for twelve years is also making a decision in
her life. She is, according to Jewish law, an unclean woman. She spreads
uncleanness to all whom she touches. She is in a crowd, pressed from all
sides. She is breaking all kinds of religious practice rules. On the
other hand, she believes that Jesus can cure her. The power goes out of
Jesus and does cure her.
Both of these accounts are meant to challenge us: will you believe? Or
will you just stay in the crowd because you are not sure what else there
is? Lots of us can stay in the Church because we are afraid to leave the
Church. Yet we don't make a commitment to the Church. Our belief in Jesus
is at that same level: sort of.
The Book of Wisdom today is quite clear that God did not make death but
that death comes about because of sin. When we live in faith, death ceases
to be a concern to us because we are living.
The Second Letter to the Corinthians presents us with this meditation:
Jesus Christ, though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by
his poverty you might become rich.
All three readings today invite us to choose for God, for life and for
complete trust in God's work in Jesus Christ. They invite us to believe in
the Church as well because it is through others that we come to know Jesus.
Just as some of the people in the time of Jesus could not accept Him as
Lord because they knew His family and knew His background, so also some of
the people today cannot accept the Church because of seeing all of its
sinfulness and defects.
What do you choose? What will I choose? We can walk with the Lord Jesus
on His way and with complete trust or we can take some other path. What do
you choose?
Readings of the day:
First Reading: Wisdom 1.13-15; 2.23-24
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 8.7, 9, 13-15
Gospel: Mark 5.21-43
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