Homilies

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 2, 2006

A common theme runs through today’s readings for the Mass for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. It is this: we have life—true life—only when we are united to the cause of life.

Who among us has not asked himself: “If God is so powerful and good and loving, why is there death and pain and suffering in the world?” Even the pious Gideon asks the angel in the book of Judges: “If the Lord is with us, why then has all this befallen us? And where are all his wonderful deeds which our fathers recounted to us?” (Judges 6:13)

The book of Wisdom in today’s first reading sheds welcome light upon this mystery of death and suffering that has plagued man through the ages.

What we can be sure of (and hold with great hope), says Wisdom, is that because God created us in his image, we are made to be incorrupt. We are to enjoy life forever, with no death looming on the horizon.

No, God did not make death. Yet death is an ugly part of our reality. It is so because Satan’s envy has infected our world with it. And when we join the company of Satan, we ourselves experience death.

Sadly, man has indeed joined Satan’s company. From our first parents, Adam and Eve, down to the choices we are making this very day, we are seduced into Satan’s way. Hence death—and pain and suffering and sin—have deep roots in this world. Nevertheless, we ought to have great hope, for as Wisdom teaches us, any sort of dominion that Satan has on this earth is not final. Final dominion belongs to God (Wis. 1:14).

Hence, if we trust in God all will be well. Finally, we will conquer death. If death has a victory over us, it will be only a seeming victory. We will have eternal life—if we only trust in Jesus.

The Epistle for today’s Mass gives us a very concrete example of what it means to have this trust. Saint Paul is writing to the faithful of Corinth who are very well off—financially, culturally, spiritually.

Saint Paul is urging them to share their abundance with other Christians in the nearby churches. But Saint Paul does not give his flock an ethical argument that they ought to share. He only reminds them to look to Christ. He doesn't even argue that they are supposed to be looking to Christ. Since their faith is already strong, they need no convincing of this. They only need to be reminded: look to Christ!

Saint Paul, therefore, exhorts them to imitate the generosity of Christ, who “though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” Christ, in laying down his life for us, gave us the ultimate example of generosity: the gift of self for the salvation of souls. If we want to be good, if we want obtain true life, we only need to look to Christ and imitate him. We can always concoct very good arguments why we ought to make this or that selfish decision, but if we really look to Christ and really imitate him, we will always make the better choice.

We see a beautiful example of truly looking to Christ in the Gospel of today’s Mass. The story opens with hundreds of admirers pressing in on Christ as he is making his way through the village to the home of Jairus. But only one among the crowd, a woman who is dying from a hemorrhage, is looking to Christ that she might receive the gift of life. She says to herself, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Sure enough, after fighting her way through the crowd of admirers and reaching in her arm to touch his garment, she is immediately healed. And then Jesus confirms what we ourselves can see from the experience. He turns to her and says: “Daughter, your faith has made you well.”

This woman’s faith is very concrete. At bottom, her faith rests not on the law or the prophets but on a single individual—Jesus. In her heart, she knows that if she trusts in Jesus all will be well.

Likewise with Jairus. Here we have one of the leaders of the synagogue (a person of the highest rank in the village) asking Jesus to lay hands on his little daughter so that she will be cured of her infirmity. But when Jesus finally makes his way through the crowd to the home of Jairus, the little girl has already died. But of course this is no problem for Jesus. He simply takes her hand and tells her to get up. Immediately, the little girl stops being dead. Though dead and cold before the touch of Jesus, she now walks about the room alive and well. What further evidence do we need that Jesus has power over death!

No, the touch of Jesus and death cannot coexist. Death will always be overwhelmed by Life. Thanks to the prayers of Jairus, the touch of Jesus became part of the equation in this series of events. The death of the little girl, therefore, was not final. This is why Jesus says to the crowd of disbelievers: “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.”

But isn’t it true that this same little girl eventually grew old and died? Didn’t death win in the end? The answer, of course, is no. Even this second death for the girl was only like sleeping, for she is now living in heaven with Jesus, our heavenly Father, and all the angels and saints. She will never again experience death.

But even after prayerful reflection on today’s readings, we might still want to ask with the pious Gideon: “If the Lord is with us, why then has all this befallen us?” Why is there still death and pain and suffering in this world?

No. These readings don’t completely resolve the mystery of death. Nevertheless, they do shed enough light to keep us from despairing. In fact, to despair is the very thing Satan wants us to do. More than anything, he wants us to focus on the apparent death rather than on the hope of eternal life. He wants the fear of death to overwhelm us to the point that we give up and act like idiots. That we say with the many: “Let us eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.”

How stupid it is to “make a commotion and weep”, thinking death of the body is eternal when in fact it is very much like sleeping. Who among us has not made plans for tomorrow as he is about to lay down to sleep for the night? Why then do we not plan for the tomorrow of the life to come?

This is what we must do: plan for tomorrow. To focus on the life to come. To live this life as a preparation for true life with the community of angels and saints in Heaven.

In fact, as baptized Christians, we are already living the life of Heaven. We have it already but not yet fully. As Saint Paul says: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12).

When we pray well, we are participating in the life of heaven more fully. The more we pray well, the more we experience heaven here on earth, the more likely we are to finally arrive there.

Let’s not, then, be intimidated or seduced by Satan, falling into his clutches for eternity. Let’s not worry about the sleep that is sure to come. This life, this day, will be over in the blink of an eye. Let us, therefore, use it wisely. Let us look to Jesus so that he might give us true life. Let us be like Jairus or the woman with the hemorrhage who put their trust in Jesus.

What does this mean concretely for you or me? It may mean making a commitment to reflect more on the Word of God, especially as it is found in the Mass of the day. It may even mean committing to doing Lectio Divina for 20 minutes or more each morning. Whatever it means, it will have something to do with improving our prayer.

Perhaps we start by praying with the Psalmist in today’s Mass:

I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up,
and did not let my foes rejoice over me.
O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol,
restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.
Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
his anger is but for a moment;
his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may linger for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me!
O Lord, be my helper!’
You have turned my mourning into dancing;
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you for ever.

Homilies

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time July 2, 2006

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 2, 2006