Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 30, 2024: The child is not dead but asleep...

The child is not dead but asleep…

Is it hard to have faith in the face of death? 

    The Book of Wisdom reminds us that God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. Indeed, God formed humankind to be imperishable; God created us to live in his presence forever. Everything that God created is wholesome and good, the very image of God’s own nature. It is when we choose self-focus over God that death enters the world, in the form of a struggle between our selfishness and God. If God created us, loving us into existence, then only our choices can get in the way of our experience of being close to God. As Psalm 30 reminds us, so long as we have faith, God will rescue us, that we might remain close to him, changing our mourning into dancing! 

    Such is the case, in Mark’s Gospel, for both the synagogue official Jairus and the woman afflicted with hemorrhages. Jairus believes that Jesus can effect change, whether his daughter is ill or at the point of death; Jesus assures Jairus by saying, Just have faith. When the woman touches Jesus’ cloak, immediately her flow of blood dried up. Jesus recognizes her faith as well:  Daughter, your faith has saved you. Both Jairus’ daughter and the woman move from death (spiritual or physical) to life in Jesus, a life that lasts forever – precisely what God intended when he created us. Jesus has chosen a physical healing and a physical raising from death to extrapolate something eternal. 

    We are baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ, that we might share in eternal life with him forever. Like the woman who touches his cloak or the girl whom Jesus takes by the hand, we share in spiritual life with him, a connection with him and in him. He remains in us, and so, as we face issues in this life, we face them in company with his presence and with his promise of life eternal. We understand our own story of life differently because he remains in us; we are aware that God dwells in each of us and in our community, in a life larger than any individual life we could imagine. May we thus excel in the gracious act of generosity, as Paul tells the Corinthians, reaching out to all those in need as we recognize our shared life in Christ. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com