I say to you, “Arise!” January 30

Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. (Hebrews 12:3-4)

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. (Mark 5: 41-42)

Tuesday of the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Piety

Let us pray: Prayer is more than words. Prayer is the brush of your cloak on my outstretched fingers. Prayer is your cloak healing my affliction. Prayer is my request to come. Prayer is your visit. Prayer is the touch of your hand to mine. Prayer is the sound of a few simple words of Your voice in my ears. Prayer is my response to those words.

The faith in my heart draws you to me. The love in your heart draws me to you. Cure me of my affliction, O Jesus. Let nothing stop you from working your miracles in my life. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/013007.shtml

How odd it must have been for Jesus. Complete strangers trusted in Him and sought Him out, and desired nothing less than His healing touch. Yet those closest to him sometimes did not have the same depth of faith in the mere touch of Jesus’ divine hand and the gentle calm of his voice. Today, the Gospel gives us two miracles in one reading. Both Jairus and the afflicted woman knew to seek direct physical encounters with Jesus for healing. Yet, in the midst of these encounters, many others jeered at Jesus and doubted his divinity.

Once again we see Jesus performing his miracles and signs in places with discord and a lot of activity. In such settings He has witnesses with faith and others without. Mark’s Gospel is filled with such active scenes. The boat in the midst of a stormy lake. The synagogue filled with the dubious officials. On the crowded road where the woman just touches Jesus’ cloak in the crowd. In the midst of the commotion at Jairus’ house. Nothing stops Jesus from working His miracles.

Faith and physical contact with Jesus is what connects Jesus to those who seek His help in today’s reading. “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction,” Jesus says to the woman. “Do not be afraid; just have faith,” Jesus says to Jairus.

The disciples doubted that Jesus could feel the touch of the woman in such a large crowd. They did not understand Jesus’ power and divinity. Yet, Jesus was “aware at once that power had gone out from him.” Then, at Jairus’s house, after the apparent death of the girl, the crowd tells him not to bother “the teacher.” These were people who also did not understand Jesus was more than just a teacher. They ridiculed him for saying the girl was just asleep. Jesus responded not with just healing but his first triumph over death…by making the girl arise with just the touch of his hand and the sound of his voice.

The word of Jesus’ miracles and signs had traveled far and wide. People from far away distances and who were not particularly close friends of Jesus equally put their hope and faith in Jesus. Our Christian life, like theirs, is to be inspired not only by the Old Testament men and women of faith but above all by Jesus and how we encounter Him every day.

Action

Rev. Robert Drinan died this week at age 86 after a sudden illness. The Washington Post wrote that “When he sought elective office, he was considered a symbol of a New Politics that melded thoughtful advocacy with organizational efficiency.” He worked throughout his adult life at the intersection of religion and public policy on everything from civil rights to the immigration of Soviet Jews, from nuclear disarmament to the impeachment of former President Nixon.

Fr. Drinan left Congress in 1981 when the Vatican ruled that a priest should not hold legislative office. He is remembered as “a man without rancor” whose deeply held beliefs never prevented him from viewing every person as “deserving respect and possessing dignity.”

Fr. Drinan joins the Cloud of Witnesses who now will inspire us to follow in the work they performed for those most in need of God’s help.