Opening: Brothers and sisters, our first reading (Hebrews 12: 1-4) exhorts us to “rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us…” so let us ask for help to do that by praying: I confess.. etc.
The Gospel: Mark 5:21-43
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side,
a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea.
One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying,
“My daughter is at the point of death.
Please, come lay your hands on her
that she may get well and live.”
He went off with him
and a large crowd followed him.
There was 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.
She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd
and touched his cloak.
She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”
Immediately her flow of blood dried up.
She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,
turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?”
But his disciples said to him,
“You see how the crowd is pressing upon you,
and yet you ask, Who touched me?”
And he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman, realizing what had happened to her,
approached in fear and trembling.
She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”
While he was still speaking,
people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said,
“Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?”
Disregarding the message that was reported,
Jesus said to the synagogue official,
“Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside
except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official,
he caught sight of a commotion,
people weeping and wailing loudly.
So he went in and said to them,
“Why this commotion and weeping?
The child is not dead but asleep.”
And they ridiculed him.
Then he put them all out.
He took along the child’s father and mother
and those who were with him
and entered the room where the child was.
He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,”
which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”
The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.
At that they were utterly astounded.
He gave strict orders that no one should know this
and said that she should be given something to eat.
After the Gospel:
Every parent’s nightmare is a desperately sick child; much worse, the daughter of Jairus was at the point of death.
As a synagogue official, Jairus was no doubt a faithful, religious man, but remember how other leaders of the synagogue had run-ins with Jesus, especially when he dared to heal someone in a synagogue on the sabbath, and how those run-ins led to plotting to kill Jesus.
Jairus, however, had enough faith and desperation to see in Jesus his daughter’s only hope for life. So he was willing to risk everything – his reputation, even his livelihood – for a chance to beg Jesus to heal his daughter.
Before they could get to the house came the dreaded message: “Your daughter has died.”
Death seems so final in the eyes of the world. But not in the eyes of Jesus.
St John Chrysostom put it this way: “It is easier for Christ to awaken someone from death than for us to arouse someone from sleep.”
That’s our faith! For the Lord, death is nothing more than sleep.
We fall asleep in the Lord, and the next thing we know, we are awakened by the Lord. That’s His promise to all of us.
And to show that he can fulfill his promise, Jesus took the little girl by the hand, and raised her to life.
That’s our faith, which St Paul expressed to the Corinthians, saying “As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Cor 15: 22