Homily
for July 2, 2006
Liturgical Year B - Cycle II
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Joshua Nyoni Topic:
Cooperate with God +
+ +
Reading
I
Wis 1:13-15; 2:23 - 24
God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the
living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the
creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is not a destructive
drug among them nor any domain of the netherworld on earth, for justice
is undying. For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own
nature he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the
world, and they who belong to his company experience it.
Gospel
Gospel Mk 5:21-43
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large
crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the
synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at
his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the
point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get
well and live.” He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him
and pressed upon him.
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had
suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that
she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard
about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak.
She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately
her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of
her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,
turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?” But
his disciples said to Jesus, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon
you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see
who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her,
approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told
him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved
you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”
While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house
arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any
longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the
synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He did not
allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the
brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue
official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing
loudly. So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and
weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And they ridiculed him.
Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s father and mother
and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was.
He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which
means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve,
arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly
astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said
that she should be given something to eat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
God we
believe in is not the God of the dead, but he is the God of the
living. He is a God who calls us; I’ll put it this way, who calls
us to life so that we may live. Life itself is something that is
very precious in the eyes of God. That is exactly what we hear
from the First Reading. God did not make death. Death was
not part of God’s plan for us at the beginning. He created life,
but death entered the world because of the devil’s envy. We see
that when life is being threatened, God always comes in favor of life,
to bring about life. This is exactly what we see in today’s
Gospel. We see that life is oozing out of the twelve-year-old
girl, Jairus’ daughter, and that of the sick woman who had
hemorrhaged. I think all of us can understand this painful human
situation because we all have watched a loved one slowly dying or we
might have experienced illness ourselves.
In the Gospel today, we see that for life to come about, we need to do
something on our part. We need to cooperate with God; we need to
do our part. In fact, you remember the saying that “God helps
those that help themselves.” Both Jairus and the woman did their
part by seeking Jesus, trying to find Jesus, trying to get some help
from him. Jairus did his part by going to get Jesus so that Jesus
could come and heal his daughter. The sick woman did play her
part by not thinking at all, but by going to present herself before
Jesus. Remember her words, “If I can only touch.” That
touch brought health, brought healing. That applies to each one
of us. If we can only go there to draw from that tap which is
overflowing, we will get that which we want.
We need to have faith and trust. Faith is this, which will lead
us to present ourselves before Jesus, before God. Each of us, I
would say, has some problems, some problems, some worries or concerns,
some cross that we need to bear but we need to do something. Each
of us has some problem that maybe is threatening our own peace, or our
peace of mind. We need to do something. On the other hand,
there maybe some heavy cloud that is hanging
over our head. It is disturbing us, disturbing our peace. We need
to
do something. Maybe something is weighing us down. Like
Lazarus, we may have somebody in our family who is seriously ill.
We should go to Jesus, and Jesus will say to each of us those beautiful
and consoling words, “Do not be afraid. Just have faith.”
Faith and trust in Jesus leads to salvation. It was that faith
and trust that brought about the healing of the sick woman, as well as
that of Jairus’ daughter. Only when we cooperate with God, can
great things happen. This is the secret to having great things
happening in our lives. Only if we can cooperate with Him will
these events occur. That in itself reminds me of what St.
Ignatius once said. He said this, “We must work as if everything
depends on us. But when we pray, we must pray as if everything
depends on God.”
Lastly, may I comment on those beautiful and comforting words of Jesus
to that little girl, “Little girl, arise.” “Talitha
koum.”
The keyword, or the catchword there, is ARISE. Jesus is saying to
each of us to rise up from the problems, the worries, the difficulties,
and go to Him. In Him, we will find life. Jesus wants us to
rise from that muddy situation of sin and right ourselves by going to
Him. For in Him, we will find forgiveness and life. Jesus
wants us to rise and discover the promises He has for each one of
us. In fact, I will put it this way, Jesus is saying ,”Rise, let
me take you by the hand and help you to see the greatest gift of the
spiritual and physical life of eternity, to which you are
called.” My challenge is, allow Him.