Little girl, I say to your arise!
Mark 5: 21-43
Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/063024.cfm
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Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. R. Amen
May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up.
(From the Rite of Anointing the sick)
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As priests we often will
have a call from a compassionate member of Hospice, that a patient of theirs is
“actively dying” and the family has requested if a priest may come for the last
rites. Often too, many in the family are
either not Catholic or have not practiced their Catholic faith in a very long
time.
I think most of us priests
do the best we can to answer that call as soon as possible. So, we have not only a person who is close to
life’s end but also a wonderful opportunity for evangelization to the
non-Catholic or the lapsed Catholic who may be present at the bed side of the
dying. If you’ve ever been in a
situation where you stood by the bedside of a dying loved one, you know exactly
what I mean. The feelings are sad, reflective, tender, grateful and a host of
similar emotions depending on the state of a person. I clearly recall one
situation, however, when I had to counsel the parents of a son who had taken
his own life earlier in the day. We shared tears together.
Such experiences capture
what the synagogue official, Jarius, must have felt as he approached Jesus with
his request that our Lord come to heal his dying daughter; a girl who was
apparently actively dying. Now this was but a child. A little girl much loved
by her father and certainly the mother and entire family.
So Jairus’ request is not
just a polite request but a cry of desperation.
You can imagine his anxious feeling and his desire that Jesus not delay
his coming. “Come quickly before she dies,” we can hear the pleading father say.
It’s a heart wrenching scene.
However, it seems that Jesus
may not necessarily share the same helplessness that the father may feel.
Although he accompanies the official on the spot, along the way he seems to
delay. A woman suffering for many years with a serious condition, secretly touches
Jesus’ garment as he walks by and is instantly healed. Our Lord apparently recognized this contact,
turns and proclaims that her faith in him has brought the healing. By spending time with this other woman, he
delays his walk with the anxious father so if you think of Jarius, you can
imagine how confused he may have been.
This older woman may be sick
but not actively dying. What about the child who is? Why does our Lord seem to
now allow himself to be sidetracked by this lesser problem? Jarius must have
been somewhat angered. And now, people from Jarius' household catch up with him
with the saddest of all news that his daughter has died. If Jesus had not
dawdled with a lesser request, there may have been some chance for her
survival.
But this would not be the
only time Jesus seemed slow despite a desperate request. Remember Martha's pleading for her sick
brother Lazarus. Jesus seemed in no hurry to go to Lazarus but waited two days
longer. (Jn 11: 1-6). Now, the same seems true with Jairus’ daughter. Why the
seeming indifference? Could it be that
our Lord is testing their faith in him; do you really trust in me that all will
be well? What about the times that God seems slow to our requests? Is that a test
of our trust in him? Remember God's
request of Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. The Lord desires that we grow in
our faith and trust in him.
Finally, in a scene of
mercy, Jesus arrives at Jarius' house, he approaches the girl and says: “Talitha
koum,” (Aramaic) and the little girl arose and walked around . . .” Scholars
say the words Jesus used, “Little girl, I
say to you arise,” implies a most tender command. I imagine that he quietly whispered these
words to her as a loving parent may gently try to wake their little child from
sleep. And then he simply suggests that she be given a snack. How human this beautiful story seems. Yet, also how much we are challenged to ask
ourselves if we truly trust that God hears our prayers, cares about our
condition both in good times and in our anxious concerns, and understands when
we are desperate for a solution?
All this tactile, touchable,
physical contact between laying of hands, touch of a garment, and the hold of a
hand brings us to see as God enters the human condition he shares in our suffering,
our doubt and most stressful worries. and the result is life and healing.
The words of Jesus to the
woman, “your faith has saved you,” remind us that these healings are
essentially stories of faith and resurrection.
As the woman is healed, she begins a new life as if coming from the
darkness. As the child is healed, she “arose immediately and walked around.”
That Jesus would come to them in the moment of their greatest worry speaks
volumes to any of us who doubt God’s care.
We see the divine/human
connection and how God reaches to humanity in moments of darkness, when trust
is established. These miracles and others we hear of in the Gospels, bring us
to see what our God continues to offer the Church through the Spirit of Christ
present among us.
Think of the sacraments for
a moment and the kindness of others. All
of them involve some sort of physical connection: anointing in Baptism,
Confirmation, and the Anointing of the Sick.
The hand of the priest imposed over the penitent in Reconciliation for
the forgiveness of sin, the hands of the priest over the bread and wine during Mass,
a calling down of the Holy Spirit. The
hands of the bishop imposed on the head of the Deacon during the Rite of
Priestly Ordination and the couple in Marriage who hold hands as their vows are
offered.
These are not just symbolic
gestures that look nice. Rather the
Church sees them as signs of communication and a transfer of the power of God
to the person, as the woman simply touched his cloak.
Think of the many generous
ministers of our Church who reach out to feed the hungry, defend a position
such as the sanctity of life and other related topics such as care for the
imprisoned and refugees. Those who bring Eucharist to the shut in, stand in
prayer with their neighbors in need or in personal loss and sorrow.
The world so desperately
needs to hear the message of the Gospel today.
We need to be people of healing, compassion to others, hope and unity
and to always trust that, despite our doubt, God truly is in control and does
indeed care about our lives. Remember Pope Francis reflection on the Eucharist
as the "bread of sinners not the reward of saints."
The Eucharist we celebrate
is God’s transmission of his life, his own body and blood poured out for us,
and should energize us to “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord" in a
very divided and obscenely politicized world in need of compassionate healers
for the common good of all.
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