Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Saint Patrick Parish
June 30 - July 1, 2018
USCCB Lectionary Readings
Jesus can be pretty bossy can't he! It seems like he's always telling somebody what to do! I think of four occasions in today's Gospel where he does something in that manner. He says, he demands really, ‘how was it that touched me, tell me, who was it?’ He tells the synagogue official ‘be not afraid, just have faith.’ He tells all those who were ridiculing him to get out, saying ‘Go, get out of here!’ And finally he tells that little girl, the little girl who was thought dead, to get up and get something to eat.’ Jesus often has these little commands that he gives those who are around him. I would imagine, perhaps, if I asked, maybe some would stand on their head, but you know, I bet there's still some who probably wouldn’t even wiggle their toes, even if I asked them to. Now, be honest, some of you just wiggled your toes. All that being said how about you humor me for just a moment. Take two fingers and find your pulse. Do you feel that? Are a single one of you making that happen? Are you making that heart beat? The cynical among us may say ‘well Father, some have a pacemaker’ or ‘I have a pacemaker, it's doing it.’ No, the pacemaker isn’t making the heart beat, it is assisting. We can do exercises to make our hearts beat faster; through prayer and meditation, quietness, we can slow our heart beat down. But not a single one of us can make our heart beat.
Your heart beat, my sisters and brothers, is a lot like faith. It's something that we receive. It is something that helps us, or actually allows us, to live. Not a single one of us can cause faith to take effect in our lives. A little teaching moment - there are three theological virtues. These three virtues are the highest of all virtues, and they all come from God. They are: Faith, Hope and Love, and each one of those begin with God, and they end with God. They come from God and they point to God, and none of us can do any of these, as much as we may try, without God first providing them. God, God’s self can hope, and God certainly loves, but God can't really have faith, because God is faith. God is the source of faith. God is that which we have faith in, God cannot really have faith in himself, God just is faith.
A side note, for just a moment - I worry that many of us, when we read Sacred Scripture, when we think of these people 2000 or more years ago, we often get into a somewhat self-righteous thinking that say that we are so much better than they were. Sure, our technology is better, our medical science has improved, but really are we better? We may think “oh those foolish people, they were tricked into believing that they were healed, or that Christ had these powers!” Certainly, others in our world will make such statements, and act like those ‘silly backwards people’ really are that far behind us. I think, however, if we just turn on the news, or look around for a moment, we recognize that we may have advanced in some ways but ultimately we are the same people, in need of the same hope, the same love, the same faith in Christ that he himself gives us.
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| "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured." |
When we look at these two occasions in which Christ is at work in his healing ministry we see Christ healing the woman with a hemorrhage for 12 years - she has been bleeding, she's been tormented by doctors who have tried to help her. And then we see this little girl who has passed and Christ raises from the dead. We can, as modern sophisticated people, see these interactions and think ‘well, they just thought that they were healed, but something else must have happened.’ Or, with the eyes of true Faith, we can believe that Christ actually did heal those people. We can, in this reality of faith’s relationship with our modern senses, find ourselves a little conflicted, especially when it comes to Christ's command to have faith. Be not afraid, just have faith. But how is it that we just have faith? Especially considering that we, on our own, can’t make faith happen. How do we live out this command, especially in times of difficulty - after all Christ is commanding this to a man who's been told that his daughter has just died. How do we, in times of difficulty, times of stress, in times of hardship, have faith, just have faith. Is it really that simple?
If we look at Christ’s reaction to those who ridicule him, we get a little bit more evidence as to how that happens, how one just has faith. What is it that Christ orders those who ridicule him. He says “Get out! Go. You can't be here right now!” But before any of you stand up and walk out, don’t worry just yet. I hardly believe that this was the definitive moment in their lives of faith. Some of them, I have little doubt, where they are at Christ’s entry into Jerusalem “hosanna, hosanna in the highest!” And then some of them, there at the crucifixion “crucify him, crucify him!” And then some, maybe even the same bunch, were killed later on, killed for standing up and professing their faith in Christ Jesus. This isn't necessarily the definitive moment in their lives, although it could have been. And that's alright. Christ offers faith time and again. We see how Christ is surrounded through his ministry with both those who have faith, and those who seem to be there simply to test him, to question him, and to to try and trick him. Christ is typically comfortable being surrounded by a crowd of imperfect faith, but in this moment, just as in other crucial moments throughout Sacred Scripture, he desires to be with those who have faith. Those who ridicule him are looking at faith itself. They ridicule him for his assertion that this little girl is going to be OK. This girl is sleeping, she is going to be alright. They ridicule him, they mock him, they are looking at faith itself and they have the opposite reaction - they make fun of him. And so he tells them, get out! They are receiving, but not accepting the faith that Jesus is offering them. So, I ask again, how are we to just have faith? Be in the presence of Christ. They are there, they are there in that crowd, pushing against them - everyone all jammed together, and that woman reaches out, in the presence of Christ, just to take a hold of him for a moment. The little girl who's asleep, having died in her bed, he reaches out to her and lifts her up there in the presence of Christ, in the presence of faith itself.
We gather together, time and again, Sunday after Sunday, to do just that, to be in the presence of Christ. The Body of Christ gathered here among you, the people of God, as well as the body of Christ consecrated on that altar. We are here to be in God's presence, to receive from faith itself that great gift of faith, that gift that enables us to somehow make it through some of life's darkest moments, some of life's biggest challenges. One more thing, that woman who had her bleeding stopped, having finally found healing after 12 years, that little girl who was raised from the dead, life wasn't all sunshine and roses for either of them after that day. They are no longer here amongst the living. They went on to live their life, to experience pain, and difficulty; they went on to die, just like everyone else. Nevertheless, they had an experience of Christ, they experienced being in the presence of faith itself. In that way each of us is invited, invited this day, and everyday, to enter into that great mystery of faith.
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