June 30 - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wisdom 1: 13-15; 2: 23-24, 2 Corinthians 8: 7,9,13-15, Mark 5: 21-43
Story 1: The rains failed again that year. It was third year in succession. No rain, no cultivation. Draught and feminine all over. Desperate for help, the villagers gathered for a meeting and decide to have a special prayer for rain. Now, there lived people of many faiths in the village; there was a temple, mosque and a church. Each of them wanted to have the prayer in their own place. Finally, they decided to have the prayer under the open sky in the common ground. As all people gathered for prayer, a small girl came running, holding high an open umbrella. Everyone wondered at her. The leader of the village asked, ‘why did you bring the umbrella, don’t you see there is no sign of rain and we are here to pray for rain. Yes, said the child, I too came to pray for rain and its going to rain as we pray, I will go home without getting wet.
Story 2: A dad was asked, ‘how do you divide your love
among your children. He answered, ‘I do not divide, I multiply it.’
Today, we read in the gospel, Jesus restoring two
persons to life: one from social death and another physical death. Faith waits,
waiting is believing and believing is blessing.
A story within a Story:
The transformative act of the woman suffering from
flow of blood is sandwiched between the beginning and the end of the healing of
Jarious’ daughter. This is a story within a story – the story of the woman with
the hemorrhage set within the story of Jairus and his daughter. The two stories
compliment each other. The evangelist mark creates a dramatic narrative tension
by narrating the two stories together. Each enhance the other.
Juxtaposition between the two women
Jairus’
Daughter Woman suffering Hemorrhage
Unnamed Unnamed
Twelve years old suffers for
twelve years
Young Adult
Rich Family Poor
family
Father intercedes actively Passive
touch
Saw Jesus Heard about Jesus
Unclean as she is dead Unclean
because of Hemorrhage
Jesus touches her She touches Jesus
Jesus calls her daughter Jesu
calls her daughter
Jesus is Christ for all:
Jesus does not divide his graces instead he multiplies it. The stories tell us
that Jesus is for all people, people of different standing and background.
Jairus is well to do and influential, while the woman is financially impoverished
and socially outcast. Jesus does not favour one over the other. He neither
rebukes Jairus for his social status nor ignores the woman because she is poor
and marginalised. Jesus does not divide what he has but multiples and shares equally
according to each one’s need.
Faith waits, waiting is believing,
believing is blessing: Jesus is travelling to Jairus’ house and
the journey is interrupted by the woman with blood flow. Jairus is worried what
will happen to the little girl while they delay. Jairus had to wait. The
servants bring the news that the child is dead and do not bother the teacher
anymore. The crowd weeps, laughs and ridicules. Faith meets with battles. Jairus
held on to his trust. Faith waits
patiently. Waiting is a sign of believing. Believing is blessing. Jairus daughter
was blessed with second life. The woman with blood flow suffered for twelve long
years, twelve years of social stigma, frustration and desperation. She waited
and believed and the Jesus restored her. Both Jairus and the woman demonstrate deep
faith in Jesus. Jairus is convinced that Jesus’ touch will make his daughter
well. The woman was convinced that just touching Jesus’s garment will heal her.
Our Take Away
1.Faith meets battles. Faith needs patient waiting.
Waiting is believing and believing is a sign of blessing in anticipation. Waiting
is not delaying; it is a time of preparation.
2. Good things happen when God says it is time
(Ecclesiastes 3:11).
3. God’s healing touch knows no gender, caste, colour,
culture, rich or poor.
Wilson SVD
Divine Word Missionary
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