DO NOT BE AFRAID; JUST HAVE FAITH

Wis 1,13-15; 2,23-24; Ps 29; 2 Cor 8,7.9.13-15; Mk 5,21-43
1 JULY

Today the Gospel puts our heart before three ways of believing in the omnipotence of Lord Jesus. A father asks Jesus to go to his house to give healing to his dying daughter. This man believes that Jesus is able to heal the body from diseases. He believes and asks. The Lord hears the cry of this afflicted father and devoid of all human hope and gets on his way with him. On the other hand, a woman afflicted by an incurable disease lives a second way. She believes that Christ should not even be asked. All you need is a physical contact, even with your cloak and she certainly would have been healed. Where no doctor succeeded, with Jesus everything would have been solved in an instant. So she believes. That’s how it is. She touches his cloak and her illness disappears. Jesus asks the woman to make the miracle public. Hers is a faith that cannot remain hidden. The world must know what Jesus is capable of doing with his body. Tomorrow millions and millions of people will not only touch the real, true and substantial body of Lord Jesus. They will also feed on it, because Jesus will give it as his nourishment. Now if only by touching the hem of the mantle the woman is healed, will there perhaps be an impossible miracle for the one who eats it with the same faith? We should all reflect when we approach the Eucharist. The body of Christ is the true omnipotence of the transformation of our whole life. But it must be taken with true faith.

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 haemorrhages 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 him, “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.

While Jesus is on his way to the house of Jairus, his daughter dies. Is there still space for Christ Jesus or does his omnipotence stop before death? For some people the Master is no longer needed. In front of a cold corpse he must also put himself aside. Jesus knows himself. He knows who He is and reassures Jairus telling him not to fear and to have only faith. When someone is told to have faith, we must be sure of the truth of our every word. The other is asked to found his life on the word we tell him. This is the third mode of true faith.

Mother of Jesus, Angels and Saints ensure that our word is always worthy of true faith.