HOMILY FOR 13th SUNDAY YEAR B ORDINARY TIME

1.Wisdom 1:13-15

2.2Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15

3.Mark 5:21-43

Theme “Faith in Jesus is the cure”

One patient asked a doctor “Please doctor if I believe that you will cure me, really I will recover from my sickness.” The doctor responded: “Faith has got power even to move mountains. If you have faith you will be healed.” The patient went on asking a doctor: “suppose you believe that I have paid all medications costs you will be paid the costs.” Doctor after hearing that he rebuked the patient “never bring jokes on peoples profession; you have to pay treatment costs and consultation fee.” In order to be cured we need both faith and action.

A moment to encounter

In today’s readings more especially from the gospel the woman with the twelve-year – old haemorrhage had undergone” long and painful treatment under various doctors without getting better. In our life, practically we do encounter people of various kinds and races. In encountering people at times we are not happy because they tend sometimes to interrupt our plans. The result of an encounter is either to be happy, to be disappointed, or to run in despair. Yet we have to appreciate that every encounter is providential. In every encounter there is the grace of God. The person who may be perceived as an interruption to each one of us is in fact a person is the person whom the Lord has sent into our lives. Whoever comes into our lives as an encounter let’s welcome him/her see grace in him, and let that encounter be an opportunity for learning and growth from such person.

From the gospel we have heard about one of the synagogue officials, Jairus, pleaded with Jesus to come to his daughter who was desperately sick. Jesus set out with him on this very important journey. On the way to the house of Jairus, Jesus had an encounter with a woman, which delayed him. It took up precious time Jesus set to attend and heal Jairus’ daughter. Jesus as we told from the gospel did not react or get angry to this interruption. However, the contrary was the case. The woman with the flow of blood simply wanted to touch the clothing of Jesus without holding him up anyway. It was Jesus initiative that the encounter a woman sought was to be materialized, that is the real encounter between two human beings. When Jesus noticed that the power had gone out of him, thus he wanted to know who touched him, Jesus in wanting to know about who touched him, it was a way to meet and make an encounter with a woman in spite of the urgency of the journey on which he had set out. Eventually has we have heard from the gospel scenario, the woman came forward, frightened, and trembling, not knowing what to expect. Jesus addressed her in a sympathetic manner, that ‘my daughter’, he said ‘your faith has restored you to health.’ He engaged her personally; he called her into personal relationship with him. What could be the other people’s views about Jesus’ encounter with that woman? May like some of us, people would have perceived that encounter as unfortunate interruption, some would have thought Jairus’ daughter to die because of delay caused by that encounter.  Yet for Jesus that encounter with a woman was of ultimate significance; it was the moment of grace. It was the prelude to an even more wonderful moment of grace in the house of Jairus when Jesus not only healed the very sick girl as he was asked to do, but instead raised her from the dead.

The gospel today calls and encourages us to pay attention to the interruption in life. What can seem like distractions can be where the Lord is calling us to be. When our plans do not work out as we wanted because of some interruptions/unexpected turn of events, it may not be the disaster that we think it is at the time. Sometimes when our plans do not work out, it is some time another opportunity for something else to happen that we did not plan but, which in itself, can have greater for ourselves and for others. In the gospel we have heard Jesus encountering an interruption. He could have kept on walking when the woman touched his cloth, but he attended to her. That was the call of the present moment for Jesus. There are times in life whereby we need to embrace interruption however how unpleasant they are rather than running to our goals we set before. Because of our weakness, we can find ourselves misjudging where real work lies. We need to acknowledge and appreciate that interruptions are part and parcel of our lives more especially when they involve responding with compassion to the needs of others. When we set our everyday journey, in between what happens as our interruptions can be more important than arriving at our destination.

The miracle stories show Jesus healing either by touch or by a word. The act whereby the woman touched Jesus, by human thinking this automatically would render him unclean. The fact that she touched him does not bother Jesus. The remarkable fact of Jesus being able to break through the taboos of his time could provide a good basis to our today’s situations. In fact what we are undergoing through is not quite different from Jesus’ time. In our own times we have different taboos like witchcraft taboos whereby we have witnessed old people and albinos being killed for the different bad motives, ideological beliefs that tend to separate people in our societies today. In our societies and communities how women are treated and what they are doing  is quite something remarkable.  

Related Posts:

Tweet