13th Sunday of the Year
Wisdom 1:13-15 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15 Mark 5:21-43
It took a great storm at sea to stir up the latent Faith of the disciples whom Jesus had invited to ‘come over to the other side’. Faith is a God-given gift, with which we can place our trust in the Lord for all our needs. We don’t always need a storm to frighten us to cry out for help or to convince us to put our trust in the Lord; it is very often evoked after long consideration and tried and trusted alternatives.
The Faith of Jairus in today’s Gospel reading is very public. He is a public official and he chooses to express his Faith in Jesus when surrounded by many of his country-folk. It took some courage to do what he did. Even when it seemed that Jesus could not grant what he had asked, he persevered in his belief and pressed Jesus to help.
The attitude of Jairus is in stark contrast to the onlookers, who were cynical and negative. They laughed at the naivety of Jesus and Jairus, and, because they are outside the family of Faith, they are turned out of the house. The parents of the girl and the three closest disciples are brought into the room. Faith means close contact, intimacy with Jesus and belonging to the family.
The woman with the haemorrhage expressed her Faith in a very different way. Hers was a very private belief. She was influenced by the traditions that regarded her as unclean, unworthy and without a voice. Also she had tried the worldly routes of healing. Jesus was almost a last resort. But her Faith was real. “If I can touch the hem of his garment!” Faith means close contact, intimacy with Jesus! He looked around, seeking to make eye contact with her. He did and she was healed.
These two incidents of healing follow an expression of Faith and show us how varied can be the expressions of Faith. There are other healings by Jesus in the Gospels which further show that Faith is Faith regardless of how it is expressed: the Centurion expressed his Faith by confessing his unworthiness (Matt 8:5-13); the leper on the side of the road seized an unexpected opportunity (Matt 8:1-4); Peter’s mother-in-law was an example of one who was already well known to Jesus and had a relationship with him (Matt 8:14-15); those who brought the man on a stretcher to Jesus, were taking a chance!(Matt 9:2-8); the blind men on the side of the road pleaded in desperation (Matt 9:27-30) – ‘yes, Lord, we believe’.
Somewhere in there we can, perhaps, recognise ourselves and our own personal way of expressing our Faith. It will be intimate, it will bring us close to the Lord, it will see Jesus turn and make eye contact with us.
Faith will give us the reassurance, the trust in the Lord that St Teresa of Avila speaks of in her poem;
Let nothing upset you,
Let nothing startle you.
All things pass; God does not change.
Patience wins all it seeks
Whoever has God, lacks nothing:
God alone is enough.