Sunday 1 July
Mark 5:21-43 • Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
The highest form of prayer is praise. The most common form of prayer is intercession. The spirit is willing to praise God and give him glory; the flesh always has more immediate needs to address. The truth is, the easiest and most natural person to pray for is ourselves. The most common exception to this is perhaps parents who find it easier to pray for their children than for themselves.
This is what we encounter in today’s Gospel reading where we meet Jairus who has great faith. He is preoccupied with his sick daughter and, like any parent in this situation, he is desperate. It is his faith which ultimately brings about the healing miracle, restoring his daughter back to full health.
Heightening the drama even further, in the same passage Mark records the story of another healing miracle. A woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years reaches out to Jesus for help. Such was her faith that she simply believed that touching the Lord’s cloak would be enough to heal her.
Belief in miracles is fundamental to the Christian faith. We could be as bold as to say that to be a Christian is to believe in miracles. Sadly today many do not believe in miracles, preferring to believe in the miracle of science. The question is, does God or can God intervene in human affairs in such a way as to bring about the miraculous? And this one question prompts another: if God does intervene – which we believe he does – then why does he not demonstrate his healing power more frequently?
God’s providence and wisdom are a mystery. God heals whom he chooses and cures as he pleases. The ultimate healing we receive comes to all of us after we die. Only then will we be fully restored and reconciled to the Father. Only then will we be fully human and fully alive; free of sickness, pain and tears.
Part of our problem with miracles is that we don’t expect them. We therefore don’t pray for them and we don’t hope for them. This is the mindset we need to challenge in ourselves and others. Today open up your heart to God’s miraculous work in your life and in the world.
‘I cannot understand people having historical difficulties about miracles. For once you grant that miracles can happen, all the historical evidence at our disposal bids us believe that sometimes they do.’ (Ronald Knox)
Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24 • Psalm 29(30):2, 4-6, 11-13
2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15 • Mark 5:21-43
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