Homily for 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B 2018
Wisdom 1:13-15;2:23-24; 2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15; Mark 5:21-43
Introduction
As human beings, there are many questions we have about life, about ourselves, about the world. But there is one question that is not just an intellectual question, but a question that touches each of us personally. It is the question of suffering. Why do we suffer? Why do good people suffer? Why does God allow suffering? In fact, when I was a young man in the 1990s, there was a song by South African musician Lucky Dube entitled: “Born to suffer,” that children are born to suffer.
Suffering takes many forms: the loss of a job, hunger and thirst. But the two most serious forms of suffering are sickness and death. The readings given to us by the Church for today’s Sunday speak about these two forms of suffering and in some way try to explain suffering for us.
Scripture and Theology
Our first reading begins by declaring: “God did not make death.” Did you hear that? “God did not make death.” And the reading goes on to add: “nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.” In other words, in God’s original plan for the world, death was not part of it. When God created the world and human beings, he intended to share his life with us eternally, with no suffering, no death. In fact, that is what the whole first reading went on to tell us.
Then we must ask: “how then did death come into the world?” Again we can go back to the first reading which says, “But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to his company experience it.” Death was a consequence of the work of the devil. Chapter three of Genesis explains the coming of death into the world very well. It was man’s fault, when Adam and Eve listened to the evil serpent, their punishment was death. Even our African stories about death, such as the story of Nambi and Walumbe, which we learnt in Primary Three, that human beings brought about death into the world; God, who is all good and loving, did not intend for death to exist. Even the song from Lucky Dube that I just quoted says that children are born to suffer, only if they are deprived of their parents.
Somebody might then say, “okay, God did not make death, but death is here. What has he done about it?” We can turn to the gospel, which shows us how God has intervened to deal with suffering and death. In the gospel passage, we are presented with two miracles of Jesus, one dealing with sickness and the other with death.
The story of the woman with the blood-flow is a story of desperation. She had been with this condition for twelve years. When I have malaria or the flu for a week, I feel like it is the end of the world; but in her case, imagine twelve years of being sick. Moreover, her condition was not just an ordinary sickness like malaria or the flu. According to the book of Leviticus, anybody in her condition, or anybody who touched a dead body, a leper and several other such conditions, was automatically spiritually unclean and could not therefore share life with others in the household, for she would also make them unclean. Naturally, she would also not be allowed to come to worship, again, because she was unclean.
Now when she touches Jesus, she is in a way, also making him unclean. Fortunately, it is the other way round; she becomes clean. What makes this woman think of this, think that touching Jesus will not make him unclean, but will instead make her clean? It is her faith – her faith that Jesus is the Holy One; he is full of holiness, that nothing unclean can defile him.
As we heard, when Jesus asked his disciples, "Who has touched my clothes?" They kind of laughed at him, telling him: "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, ';Who touched me?'" But this question is important in another way. That is why Jesus asked it. While many people were touching Jesus, not all of them were touching him in faith and asking to be healed. That is why when she comes forward and admits what she has done, he does not scold her, but instead says: “"Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."
And so we can draw a lesson from this passage, that in the midst of our suffering, especially our sickness, we should turn to God in faith. And if it is his will, we shall be healed.
Similarly for the second miracle, the healing of Jairus’ daughter, it is the faith of the father that is important in this healing. Jairus displays his faith and trust in Jesus not just by his words, but even by the manner in which he approaches Jesus. Remember he was a synagogue official, a high-ranking member of the community – someone like the Ssabakristu (Parish Council Chairman) of today. But he fell at the feet of Jesus and pleaded with him, begging: "My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live." This man had faith in Jesus, a deep faith in Jesus.
Then Jesus goes to the man’s home; it is while he is going there that he encounters the woman whom we have just heard about and heals here. And perhaps while he is still attending to this woman, word reaches them that the little girl has already died. But Jesus assures them: "Do not be afraid; just have faith." And indeed he goes into the house, with his three closest disciples, Peter, James and John, the same three he will take with him to the Transfiguration and to the Garden of Gethsemane, and he heals her, saying, "Little girl, I say to you, arise!" He brings joy back to the Jairus and the little girl’s mother, perhaps her brothers and sisters too, her friends, and even relatives. He is even concerned about her stomach, instructing them to give her something to eat.
But this miracles is not just about this little girl. In fact, she is one of only three people that Jesus raised from the dead in the gospels, the other two being the son of Nain and Lazarus. Why did Jesus not raise all the people who died during the three years of his ministry, perhaps hundreds of people? He did not need to. He raised these three, including this little girl, as a sign of the resurrection from the dead, which is far more important than being raised back to this life, only to die again; after all three died again.
In other words, God’s answer to death is the resurrection. The resurrection, which already happened with Jesus, is God’s way of dealing with death once and for all. Now death is not the conquered, but the conquered. At the Resurrection of the Dead, we shall all be like this little girl, come back to life, but to a life that never ends. We shall return to the way God wanted things to be when he made the world, as we heard, God did not make death; instead he made us to be like him forever.
Christian Life
What do these readings have to tell us about our own sufferings today, especially the suffering that comes from sickness or from losing a loved one, or even from the knowledge that we too shall die, maybe in ten years, may be next year, maybe tomorrow? What are we to do about this?
The first lesson for us to remember is that suffering is real; pain is real; death is real. We should not deny it, like some Christians tend to do. I have heard of Christians who tell people not to cry at funerals, because it is a sign of lacking faith. No, they are wrong. Even Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus (Jn. 11:35).
- While the world tends to use euphemisms to describe death, words like “passing away,” “kicking the bucket” or “breathing one’s last,” the Bible simply speaks of death and dying.
- While the world tends to sanitize death and cover up all its messiness, pain and suffering, the Church tackles death headlong.
- While the world tends to try to avoid death at all costs or to take it on, but on one’s own terms, Christians respect death as the entrance into life with God, leaving its timing to him.
Pain and suffering are real; we must acknowledge them and we must try to work hard to eliminate them. That is why the Church throughout history has been involved in taking care of the sick and poor, the bereaved and the suffering, because the Church acknowledges them. In our personal lives too, we must not deny or try to hide our suffering or that of others; instead we should acknowledge it and try to work towards removing it.
The second lesson then takes us a step farther. After acknowledging our suffering, we must deal with it as Christians do, not as pagans do. For while the suffering of Christians is no less painful than that of other people, Christians have been given a tool for dealing with it by Jesus. Being Christians does not take away our sorrow; but being Christians shows us how to handle our sorrow, how to weep with hope and in faith.
The third thing that Christians do is weep and hope together, in mutual support and prayer. When the dying person is still on this side of death, the Christian practice is to support the dying person not only with the physical care of medicine and food, but also the psychological care of family and friends and most important of all, the spiritual care of grace and blessings. Just think of the many Church-run medical facilities and medical missionaries in the world. Just think of the many priests and lay ministers who attend to the spiritual needs of the sick.
Conclusion
So in a very real sense every one of us can see ourselves both in Ja’irus’ daughter who was dead but then rises again because we’re all going to die and we’re all going to rise again in Christ, God willing for eternal life with him. And then we also are all going to suffer. So in the midst of our suffering, like the women with the hemorrhage, Christ is not absent but he now touches us above all through the sacraments of the church: baptism, through the holy Eucharist, through the sacrament of reconciliation, especially in this case through the anointing of the sick, which is a sacrament actually designed, right, to communicate grace to those who are sick and suffering, and especially those are on the verge of death. So Christ has not left us, he has not abandoned us, he was Jesus the healer, he was Jesus the physician then and he still is Jesus the healer today. Healing us now through the sacraments, through the grace of the sacraments, and then ultimately healing us from the ultimate illness of death itself through the resurrection (Dr. Brant Pitre Commentary, 13th Sunday, Year B)
God did not make death and suffering. God does not allow death and suffering to have the last word. God has sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to show us how to deal with suffering and death in hope. God has showed us the way to eternal life, where there will be no more suffering, no more pain, no more death.
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