13TH SUNDAY B
FAITH THAT SAVES
13th Sunday, Ordinary Time
The
gospel today offers two accounts that are very real and concrete. Who will not be able to identify with
the two women in Mark’s narration – the woman bleeding for twelve years and the
little girl on her deathbed?
There
are times when we are desperate in our search for solutions to our
problems. This woman was sick for
a long time and her resources are already exhausted. Yet, she persists in her
pain. My mother went through this in two years of cancer medications and I
think I know what’s happening here.
Maybe
for the longest time ever you are in search of a job, or your career is slow
and unproductive, or you have been waiting for a loved one to find the light.
Yet you cannot bring about the results you desire.
There
are also times when the light of our life is dimmed, like Jairus whose lovely daughter
just died. How he hated to see her
go and would do everything to augment her life. Certainly, in our lives too, there are people dying,
relationships ending, dreams crashing down, plans drifting away – all these
beyond us and how we wish we can reverse the trend.
This
is the source of hopelessness and despair – when we meet life’s obstacles and
no one and nothing seems to be working on our side. It causes in us sadness,
confusion, anger and remorse.
But take a look at
the first reading from the Book of Wisdom: “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…”
God’s plan is life not death, success not failure, joy not grief.
The bleeding woman and
Jairus, the girl’s father did not lose heart. They did not succumb to the temptation of giving up and
blaming God. Instead, they did the
best thing their hearts were telling them to do – go to Jesus! And to Jesus they went, one jostling
through the crowd to touch the Lord’s garment and the other kneeling down in
humble supplication for his lovely girl.
They knew what to do. They
clung to the only resource that does not disappoint. They exercised faith! They drew close to Jesus, humanity’s only
hope. Even the Lord acknowledged
that it was faith that cured the woman and faith that revived the dead little
girl. In faith, we realize how close the Lord is to us and how powerful he is
to dissolve our fears, to strengthen us and to restore our drooping spirits, to
solve the problems we are powerless to solve.
Are you about to give up? Are you on the verge of losing joy and
hope? Have you depended on people,
drugs, tactics that won’t work? Friend, put your faith into action! Go to Jesus and tell him what you
need. Believe in his love and
accept his power. Like today’s
psalm, we will soon say: I will
praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
