A Message of Healing in a Broken World

Our world is in desperate need of healing. It seems for every good story I hear, there are 2 that take its place letting us know that the evil one is trying his best to take over. The Readings for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time give us a message of healing in a broken world.

Step By Step, One by One

In the 2nd Reading (2Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15) Paul encourages everyone to evangelize. He is cheering us all on to succeed in spreading The Word. When you stop and think about it, it really is astonishing how the Church started and grew. It began with only 12 people going out and preaching. In his new book The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity, Matthew Kelly discusses "Spiritual Multiplication". In simple terms, it's a group of people who encourage another group of people to proclaim The Word. That group of people engages with another group of people, and so on. That's how The Word spread in the time of the early Church. It's how rumors get started, true, but it can definitely be used to increase the number of Christians. It took time for Christianity to grow; it didn't happen overnight.  We can rebuild what the evil one is tearing down. One person at a time.

Jesus Gets a Tap on the Shoulder

In the Gospel (Mark 5:21-34) we have 1 story that is embedded in another one. Father said that Mark likes to "sandwich" stories. One story starts, then is interrupted by a seemingly different story, and then the first story finishes. Both are about healing. There is a woman who has faith that by just touching Jesus' cloak she will be healed, and it happens. Jairus has faith that Jesus can touch his little girl and heal her. Jesus is on the way to Jairus' house when he is sidetracked. The woman touches his cloak and he knows that someone was healed by touching him. God tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Uh, son. You may want to acknowledge this one." What desperation the woman had knowing that if she touched Jesus he would, in the Jewish law, be considered unclean. She was willing to risk the wrath that very well could have come. I'm sure she thought that, because the crowd was pressing in on Jesus, he wouldn't know that she had been healed. He would have no idea...if she could just touch him. But he did know (it was the tap on the shoulder, I'm telling ya!) and she told him it was her. (Unlike Eve who blamed it on someone else, she took complete responsibility for it.) If she didn't truly believe before then, I bet she did after the exchange between her & Jesus!

Bothering Jesus

When Jesus arrived at Jairus' house, he brought the little girl back to the living through her father's faith, even though the people told Jarius that she was dead so there was no point in bothering Jesus.  Our deceased are not truly dead but are asleep in Christ. We must continue to pray for them so that through not only their faith but also our own can they have eternal life. We have to keep bothering Jesus so that we will all be reunited.

We are such a broken world and we are getting more broken by the hour. Today's words of healing bring some comfort. We have to pray for the brokenness and like the woman and Jairus, we have to have faith that the Trinity will heal us.