XIII Sunday of the Year

THE TOUCH THAT HEALS

Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24; 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15; 

Mark 5:21-43 or 5:21-24, 35b-43

Readings for the XIII Sunday of the Year

Sue Knutson was hiking alone in the mountains when her foot slipped between two boulders. She felt sharp pain in her ankle, and then collapsed on her back. 

Miles from civilization and medical care, Knutson, a nurse, held her leg in the air and used the only resource available—her hands—to reduce the swelling and shooting pain. She held her hands a few inches from her ankle and breathed deeply and slowly. The pain began to ebb, and after thirty minutes she was able to limp to the road unassisted. At the emergency room, doctors said she had a severe medial lateral sprain and she’d have to be in a cast for four months. Six weeks later, her ankle had healed enough for doctors to remove the cast. Knutson had used the power of touch. 

That’s what Jesus does in today’s dramatic passage. We have two healing stories and the people involved could not be more different. 

Jairus represented the upper crust of society – the synagogue ruler – rich; powerful; religiously prominent. The woman in the crowd was a social outcast. Since she was haemorrhaging, she was considered unclean and therefore not allowed to set foot in the synagogue. 

In each situation, Jesus’ touch makes the person whole. His touch stops the woman’s haemorrhage, and she is healed. It brings the corpse to life, and the young girl gets out of bed. God, in Jesus, loves into life and wholeness these two vastly different people. And restores them to community and communion.

Even more, he establishes a relationship with them! He calls the woman “daughter”; she is not untouchable. By calling Jairus’ daughter “little girl”, Jesus establishes with her the same relationship. God, in Jesus, makes them his children.

This story is not merely about these two daughters of Israel. It’s about the creation of a new Israel. Mark has seeded this story with clues. How long had the woman been bleeding? Twelve years. How old was the little girl? Twelve years. Every Jewish person reading this story would see the repetition of the number twelve as a symbol of the twelve tribes of Israel.

This Gospel reveals Jesus as the source of life and healing; it reveals our God as “pro-life”! God wants his people to live full lives; he wants us to share his life forever. As the first reading says: “God takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living... he fashioned all things that they might have being.” 

Each of us—in some way or another—needs healing.

Like Jairus’, we need to come to the Lord, fall on our knees and plead with him to lay his hands on us. Or like the woman, we need to touch him. May we hear his words “talitha koum” addressed to each one of us, and experience healing and wholeness. And may we, in turn, touch others to health and wholeness.

XII Sunday of the Year

LORD, DO YOU NOT CARE...?

Job 38:1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41

Readings for the XII Sunday of the Year

Monty had severely handicapped limbs, the result of polio. Through dogged determination, he got a degree and a job. Then he developed problems with his sight; doctors discovered that his retinas were becoming detached. Monty found himself facing blindness and total immobility.

We can identify with Monty’s experience. There is so much turmoil and suffering in our lives. When we think things have quieted down, more turmoil erupts. We wonder how much more can we take! 

That’s probably the unasked question in the disciples’ minds in today’s gospel! 

The incident happens after a long teaching session which made “it impossible for them even to eat.” Jesus decides to cross to the other side of the lake, the only way they can leave the crowd behind. 

As soon as they embark, they face one of the sudden windstorms that often whip up the Sea of Galilee. These veteran sailors panic as the boat begins to fill up. Where is Jesus? He is oblivious to what is going on and is – Mark puts it so vividly – asleep on a cushion at the stern of the boat.

Tired after handling crowds, battling a sudden windstorm, and the master asleep! How much more can the disciples take? They cry out: “Do you not care that we are perishing?”

Let’s return to Monty! Monty grew bitter. Then he noticed what was happening around him: his co-workers carolled at Christmas and his neighbours held campaigns to raise funds; a surgeon volunteered to operate. Post-surgery, his eyes were fine. Monty said that he felt loved and cared for, and a deep sense of God’s love. He was in a storm but a storm in which he discovered God was with him.

The disciples, too, discovered that God was with them during that storm! Roused out of sleep, Jesus rebukes the wind and the sea. In commanding the sea, Jesus affirms his power over chaos and evil (in Jewish mentality, the sea is a reminder of the primitive chaos); he shows that he is Lord.

Mark’s Christian community saw this event as a sign of Jesus’ saving presence amid persecutions that threatened its existence.

There are times God seems absent or oblivious. Like the disciples, we want to cry out: “Do you not care...” We’d do well to recall the opening phrase of the First Reading: “The Lord addressed Job out of the storm.” The same Lord addressed the disciples during the storm on the Sea of Galilee. The same Lord addresses us during our storms—within and without.

During the storms in my life, do I believe that Jesus is on board with me, and can I hear him address me? 

To journey with Jesus is to journey through storms, not around them! These will disturb the peace of our Galilees but will not overcome us because the Lord is with us saying “Quiet! Be still!” to the storms… and to us. Why, then, am I still afraid?

XI Sunday of the Year

STARTUP!

Ezekiel 17:22-24; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10; Mark 4:26-34

Readings for the XI Sunday of the Year

Jeff Bezos started an online bookstore in his garage in Bellevue in 1994. Today Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin started a search-algorithm project in a friend’s garage in 1998. Since their project was interfering with their schoolwork, they tried to sell it to Excite for $1 million, which rejected the offer. Google is the most trafficked site in the world.

In 1976, twenty-year-old Steve Jobs hand-built fifty computers in a garage in Cupertino. Today, Apple is the most valuable tech company in the world.

Everything starts small, including the kingdom of God! It is a startup! In the gospel, Jesus gives two images of the kingdom.

The first image emphasizes that the building of the kingdom is God’s work. It goes on whether we are aware of it or not! Our task, like that of the farmer, is to scatter the seeds of the kingdom – love, joy, hope – and to wait!

In the second image, Jesus compares the kingdom to a mustard seed. The tiny seed grows into a large shrub and provides shelter for birds in its branches; the kingdom has tiny beginnings and gives space for people of different races and regions. A similar image in the first reading speaks of God taking a tender shoot and causing it to grow into a mighty cedar, a dwelling for birds of every kind.

In a world where we face numerous difficulties and challenges– as individuals, as families, as communities, and as a church – it’s so easy to give in to discouragement. We want to give up because our little acts seem to make no difference to the world; we can’t see how there can be light anywhere in this darkness; we don’t know how a loss or a death can result in life. These are parables of hope.

Bezos, Page and Brin, Jobs didn’t begin by trying to create Amazon, Google, and Apple; they started an online bookstore, a search algorithm, and a computer. The mustard plant didn’t start from a shrub; it started from a small and insignificant seed. The kingdom of God is not an established empire; it begins from little acts of love and kindness.

Will I begin from where I am, scatter the seeds of love, joy, encouragement, support... and leave the growth of the kingdom to God? Where and how will I scatter the kingdom seeds?

May you and I scatter the seeds of the kingdom, act with love, and walk with hope that God will bring to fruition our small beginnings.

The Body and Blood of Christ

LIVE THE EUCHARIST

Exodus 24:3-8; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

Readings for the Body and Blood of Christ

Some years ago, some students were standing at the entrance of their college of theology. A woman, dishevelled and distraught, came running and pleaded with them to save her. She had escaped from a nearby quarry where she was a bonded labourer; she had been beaten and branded. Incredibly, her “master” was a devout Catholic who came for the Eucharist every Sunday; he was esteemed in the church and a noted philanthropist.

During communion one Sunday, a lady was nudged by the lady behind her. She snarled at her, abused her, and then calmly said “Amen” and received communion!

Both incidents, of varying gravity, show a disconnect between our worship and our life. Yet scripture and tradition are clear that worship and life must be related, and the Gospel indicates likewise.

The Last Supper was part of the Passover meal, the most important Jewish celebration. Further, Mark tells us that Jesus took the bread “while they were eating”. In its original form, the Eucharist had a place in people’s celebrations and their ordinary lives. 

At the Last Supper, Jesus gave his disciples his body and blood. He gave himself! This was a continuation of what he had done during his public ministry; and a prelude to what he would do at Calvary.

Soon after Jesus gave his disciples the bread and the cup, “they went out to the Mount of Olives” to resolutely complete his mission.

We need to link what happens at the Eucharist with our lives. 

First, the Eucharist must be a part of our celebrations and of our ordinary lives (perhaps, deprivation of the Eucharist during the lockdown has made us aware of its importance in our lives).

Second, we need to live the Eucharist. We need to share ourselves with others. Recall that in John’s Gospel, there is no institution narrative; he describes Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. 

Third, we need derive strength for our life at the Eucharist. We need to bring our lives to the Eucharist, to offer ourselves and our lives, and to take the Eucharist with us into our lives.

How I make the Eucharist and what it signifies a part of my life? How will I give myself to my brothers and sisters? Will I draw strength from the Eucharist to carry out my life’s mission?

May we live what we celebrate!

 

PS! Some ways of living the Eucharist in today’s context: For the good of all, it was necessary that we deprive ourselves of participation in the Eucharist for as long as is necessary. Those who wore masks, practiced physical distancing, exercised other required precautions gave themselves in service for the sake of “the many”. Getting vaccinated is another step toward reverencing the Body of Christ.