Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24; Ps 30; 2 Cor 8:7,9,13-15; Mk 5:21-43
COMMENTARY
The Invitation to True Faith That Engages Itself
Today’s long Gospel passage tells us two stories that the Evangelist Mark has skillfully woven into a single narrative according to a well-defined structure: Beginning Story A (Jairus’s daughter) – Story B (the woman with the hemorrhage) – Ending Story A (Jairus’s daughter). The common thread is the manifestation of God’s power in Christ breaking into the everyday and triumphing over human misery and death. Such a divine manifestation, however, requires the “cooperation” of faith on the part of those involved. The key phrase for all listeners, yesterday as today, remains the one Jesus addressed to Jairus, the synagogue leader: “Do not be afraid; just have faith!” As we reflect on the details of this “two-in-one” story, three points are particularly significant.
- “Daughter, Your Faith Has Saved You.” Faith as a “Commitment” That Saves
It is important to note that the story of the resurrection of the “little daughter” of Jairus and of the woman suffering from a hemorrhage took place after Jesus had gone back “again in the boat to the other side.” That is, he had returned to “his” shore, in and around the area of Capernaum, after the missionary incursion to that “other side” of the Gentiles (cf. Mk 5:1). This geographical context of Jesus’ activity “among the Israelites” makes even more significant the fundamental call to faith in the first of the two stories presented here, that of the sick woman.
In the account, there is a certain dramatization of the woman’s situation, even with some irony. In fact, the evangelist describes: “a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.” In a word, as a Vietnamese proverb says, “tien mat tat mang” (“the money is lost, but the infirmity remains”). Thus, the only hope for the protagonist lies in Jesus, or rather in “his cloak,” as the argument goes: “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” So she thought, and so it was, miraculously and seemingly automatically.
But why did she decide to act so secretly, hoping and believing in a miracle? Simply out of fear and the embarrassment of being declared impure, according to the Mosaic Law. In a sense, she was forced to hide her uncleanness from the crowd and thus from Jesus. Jesus, however, “saw” the woman with her problem and also with her faith, albeit imperfectly and only by intuition. Jesus granted the woman the beginning of physical healing as she desired. But not only that, Jesus wanted to “find” her, to “meet” her personally, to offer her complete salvation and at the same time to teach the crowd a lesson of faith that would lead to a complete healing: “ Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”
Actually, it is the power of God in Jesus that saves, but with this statement Jesus emphasizes the fundamental role of faith, which almost automatically produces salvation. Healing appears here as a free gift of God in Jesus, but it requires the commitment of faith on the part of the man/woman who goes in search of such a gift, like the woman in the story. Jesus still invites this evangelical faith, nourished by perseverance, even in despair, as in the situation of Jairus with his dying little daughter.
- “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” Parents’ Faith Saves Daughter
Here we return to the first story, which took a turn after the healing of the woman. Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, heard the bad news from his men at home: “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” In this tragic situation, Jesus’ invitation to Jairus takes on a special meaning that is usually translated from the original Greek as “Do not be afraid; just have faith” but literally is best translated as “…just keep on having faith!” In fact, the father who had earlier come to Jesus to ask Him to come and heal his daughter already had some faith in Jesus, the divine healer. But when he heard of his daughter’s death, that faith suffered a profound crisis.
It is interesting to note how Jesus spoke and acted with determination, addressing the grieving father, until the moment when the miracle was performed on the girl. Here, as in the previous healing story, we can also see the victory of divine grace in Christ acting through human faith, besides some humorous details that the evangelist emphasizes in the story, such as Jesus’ ironic phrase (“The child is not dead, but asleep”) and the curious presence of people who were probably paid to cry, shout and despair at the funeral, because they easily went from crying to laughing at Jesus.
So, at the risk of oversimplifying, we could say to any believer in need, “Just keep on having faith,” and Jesus will take care of the rest!
- The Invitation to True Faith in Mission
After the question to the disciples about their faith in the earlier episode of the storm on the sea, the two stories interwoven in this long narrative of St. Mark highlight the examples of faith as commitment, tenacity and perseverance that then work the miracle in desperate situations. We recall Jesus’ very mysterious teaching to the disciples: “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Mt 17:20). May the exhortation of Christ the Lord to continue to believe in the power of God in every situation of our life and mission resound constantly in us, his disciples-missionaries today: “Do not be afraid; just have faith”
And let us not forget the important words of St. John Paul II: “Mission is an issue of faith, an accurate indicator of our faith in Christ and his love for us” (Redemptoris Missio 11).
Let us pray, then (based on the alternative prayer in the Italian Missal for Sunday XIII, Year B)
O Father, who in the mystery of your poor and crucified Son willed to enrich us with every good, grant that we may not fear poverty and the cross, so that we may bring to everyone the good news of new life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Useful points to consider:
John Paul II, Encyclical on the Permanent Validity of the Church’s Missionary Mandate, Redemptoris Missio, 14
Two gestures are characteristic of Jesus’ mission: healing and forgiving. Jesus’ many healings clearly show his great compassion in the face of human distress, but they also signify that in the kingdom there will no longer be sickness or suffering, and that his mission, from the very beginning, is meant to free people from these evils. In Jesus’ eyes, healings are also a sign of spiritual salvation, namely liberation from sin. By performing acts of healing, he invites people to faith, conversion and the desire for forgiveness (cf. Lk 5:24). Once there is faith, healing is an encouragement to go further: it leads to salvation (cf. Lk 18:42-43). The acts of liberation from demonic possession-the supreme evil and symbol of sin and rebellion against God-are signs that indeed “the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Mt 12:28).
POPE FRANCIS, Angelus, Saint Peter’s Square, Sunday, 28 June 2015
[…]These two episodes — a healing and a resurrection — share one core: faith. The message is clear, and it can be summed up in one question: do we believe that Jesus can heal us and can raise us from the dead ? The entire Gospel is written in the light of this faith: Jesus is risen, He has conquered death, and by his victory we too will rise again. This faith, which for the first Christians was sure, can tarnish and become uncertain, to the point that some may confuse resurrection with reincarnation. The Word of God this Sunday invites us to live in the certainty of the Resurrection: Jesus is the Lord, Jesus has power over evil and over death, and He wants to lead us to house of the Father, where life reigns. And there we will all meet again, all of us here in this square today, we will meet again in the house of the Father, in the life that Jesus will give us.
The Resurrection of Christ acts in history as the principle of renewal and hope. Anyone who is desperate and tired to death, if he entrusts himself to Jesus and to his love, can begin to live again. And to begin a new life, to change life is a way of rising again, of resurrecting. Faith is a force of life, it gives fullness to our humanity; and those who believe in Christ must acknowledge this in order to promote life in every situation, in order to let everyone, especially the weakest, experience the love of God who frees and saves.
Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter on faith, Lumen Fidei
- […] Christians know that suffering cannot be eliminated, yet it can have meaning and become an act of love and entrustment into the hands of God who does not abandon us; in this way it can serve as a moment of growth in faith and love. By contemplating Christ’s union with the Father even at the height of his sufferings on the cross (cf. Mk 15:34), Christians learn to share in the same gaze of Jesus. Even death is illumined and can be experienced as the ultimate call to faith, the ultimate “Go forth from your land” (Gen 12:1), the ultimate “Come!” spoken by the Father, to whom we abandon ourselves in the confidence that he will keep us steadfast even in our final passage.
- […] Faith is not a light which scatters all our darkness, but a lamp which guides our steps in the night and suffices for the journey. To those who suffer, God does not provide arguments which explain everything; rather, his response is that of an accompanying presence, a history of goodness which touches every story of suffering and opens up a ray of light. In Christ, God himself wishes to share this path with us and to offer us his gaze so that we might see the light within it. Christ is the one who, having endured suffering, is “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:2).