Faith leads to Union with Christ: Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24; 2 Cor 8:7,9,13-15; Mk 5:21-43 (B 13)

 

Faith leads to Union with Christ

Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24; 2 Cor 8:7,9,13-15; Mk 5:21-43 (B 13)

‘Take courage, daughter: your faith has saved you.’ Alleluia. 

Faith is personal response to God who invites us to recognize his salvation. Today’s gospel is a striking example of intercession. Jairus pleaded for his daughter. The faith of the sickly woman was hidden “within herself” and she touched the garment of Jesus”. Her faith was united with humility and truth.

When we are in trouble, Jesus shows compassionate heart. When Jairus requested Jesus to go with him to see his daughter, “He went with him”! in the same way he goes with us to the house of mourning, to the room of sickness, to the bed of death. His presence lightens the sufferer's load and soothes the heart. When we are in despair, he reassures us by saying “Fear not, only believe”. These are the words of comfort, fitted to soothe and to inspire desponding hearts with heavenly hope. Let us learn that, where Jesus is, there is no place for despair.

The woman for twelve long and weary years had suffered from a painful and weakening malady. Her disease did not bring herself to talk of it in public. It was a disease caused by ceremonial uncleanness. She conceived the thought of stealing a cure. She thought within herself, “If I touch but his clothes,” or his garment, or even the border of it, “I shall be whole.” And Jesus said, “Daughter, be of good comfort: your faith has made you whole; go in peace.”

Her faith was true faith, different from the multitude that thronged Jesus that touched him. Others touched him, but their touch was incidental; hers was intentional. Others touched him, not feeling any need for help but she touched him, conscious of her malady and convinced of his power to affect her cure. Faith is thus seen to be the means of union with Christ, and union not mechanical and physical, but union rational and spiritual. We may approach him by ceremonies, by profession, by lifeless prayers, and in none of these cases do we really touch him. Not coming into living contact with him, we cannot expect to be recognized by him.

The power of Christs raises the dead and heal the sick, so that we may sleep calmly in death till he bid us arise. In both instances we see Jesus' personal concern for the needs of others and his readiness to heal and restore life. In Jesus we see the infinite love of God extending to each individual as he gives freely and wholly of himself to each person he meets. Do you approach the Lord with confident expectation that he will hear your request and act?

We too should have more faith, that faith that does not doubt in the face of life's difficulties and trials, and that knows how to mature in pain through our union with Christ, as Pope Benedict XVI suggests in his encyclical Spe Salvi (Saved by Hope): “It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love.”

“Our Savior Jesus Christ has broken the power of death and brought life” (DO)