Mark 5:21-43 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time June 30, 2024 He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”
Mark 4:35-41 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time June 23, 2024 “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
June 22, 2024
Mark 6:1-6 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time July 7, 2024 Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
July 6, 2024
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-24
2 Corinthians 8:7, 9:13-15
Mark 5:21-43
A. Text/Context
• The readings we have today tell us of a close encounter with God
• And what kind of God is this? The God that we have is a God of life and abundance and this is manifested in all the readings we have today
• The 1st reading in the Book of Wisdom tells us that God does not rejoice in the destruction of the living
• The 2nd reading in 2 Corinthians tells us that God is rich yet he became poor so we might become rich
• And of course in the gospel are two miracle stories; 1st is the woman cured long suffering of her hemorrhage for a good number of 12 years
• She just touched the cloak of Jesus and presto she is healed and Jesus did not even know the woman
• He is just aware that a healing power has gone out of him
• Then the daughter of the official Jairus who was already dead when Jesus arrived was roused to life by Jesus
• Jesus simply took the girl by the hand and presto the girl was alive again
• These are awesome miracle stories of a God of life
B. Human Situation
• These are situations that we experience in our lives as Christians when sometimes we feel that God is so near to us and so close to us
• We feel the closeness of God when we have a lot of blessings to count on, a beautiful home, good business and a happy family. We feel that God is so good
• We may not be able to experience those awesome miracles that the gospel tell us today
• Even though we do not witness these miraculous things happening in our lives, as they seldom happen or they do not even happen anymore in this modern times
• But still, we feel the goodness of God because life is good more or less and our spiritual or prayer life is also good and we all thank and praise God for the blessings
• Now here comes the bad news, sickness in the family, bankruptcy in business, no more work to rely on
• Things become bad, you do not attend Sunday masses anymore, you do not want to pray anymore after all, the Lord is not listening. In a worst scenario other people even change religions
• For some people, in the days of abundance we thank the Lord. In times of distress we distance away from the Lord
• For some other people, it’s the other way around. In times of distress we call upon the Lord. In times of plenty, we forget the Lord
• There is no place for the Lord in our lives. Many Christians are like that. We have different responses and reactions to the different situations I life
• The reality is that our spiritual life is really like that. We all feel sometimes that God is so near to us and sometimes God is so far from us
• Do you know that during the final days of St. Francis of Assisi he cannot pray anymore! He was almost blind and so weakened by the severe mortifications of the body, he was also very discouraged and now he wanted to die
• He wants to pray in a cave but the rats would bite his fingers. He was so despondent he wanted to die
• And so an angel appeared to him to comfort him. But at the first strike of the violin the music is so beautiful and he was so full of joy and he told the angel to stop
• Why? He feels that his soul will separate from his body from the joy of hearing the music. He did not want to die!
• St. Therese of Avila will also cry a lot because many times she feels that God has abandoned her even though everything she did is holy and she also wanted to die
• But when she will also experience extreme joy in a hypostatic union when God is totally in her she almost cannot bear it and she feels she would die
• What I mean here is that the joys and trials in life are really the real components of life
• You cannot be always happy as you cannot always be sad. That is the character of a spiritual life
C. Challenge
• The challenge that the gospel brings us today is that at all times we must continue to pray and praise God whether the times maybe good or bad
• The woman with hemorrhage suffered for 12 years and God came to her rescue. The family of Jairus suffered sadness and desolation because their daughter is dead but Jesus gives life again
• The 2 examples in the gospel did not lose hope because of the sad situation they are in
• The reality is that God is always there both in good and bad situations
• And the reality also is that God will always put us to the test whether we are good or bad
• The spiritual dryness that we feel will always come to pass sooner or later
• The material abundance that we enjoy may not also last a lifetime
• You see the lessons that the gospel gives us today is that God is the author of all trials as well as the author of all blessings
• Can we stop God from sending us trials because we do all the good things? No. God will do it according to his holy will and most of the time to purify us. God is totally free to do it and he is the author of all things happening in our lives
• But we can only pray to him: do not bring us to the test
• That is why good or bad things happen to both good and bad people. Don’t ever think that because we are so holy we are already free from all those tribulations in life
• Today we are reminded that the experience of dryness or abundance in our life is both a test of endurance sent to us by God
• God will send us fortunes to test us if we will not forget him and God will also bring trials to make us go back to him
• We continue to pray even in the midst of trials and tribulations and we must not forget to pray even if we are abundant
• We must always remember that even in the midst of sorrow and death the God of life will always come to our rescue
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