The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate our response to the generous grace that has raised the fullness of our life.
Generosity with our wealth
The reading from the Book of Wisdom asserts that God did not make death.
* [1:15] Undying: immortality is not seen as an innate quality of the soul but as a gift of God to the righteous.1
Psalm 30 is a thanksgiving for recovery from grave illness.
* [Psalm 30] An individual thanksgiving in four parts: praise and thanks for deliverance and restoration (Ps 30:2–4); an invitation to others to join in (Ps 30:5–6); a flashback to the time before deliverance (Ps 30:7–11); a return to praise and thanks (Ps 30:12). Two sets of images recur: 1) going down, death, silence; 2) coming up, life, praising. God has delivered the psalmist from one state to the other.2
The reading from the Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians urges the community to excel also in a generous undertaking.
* [8:12–15] Paul introduces the principle of equality into the discussion. The goal is not impoverishment but sharing of resources; balance is achieved at least over the course of time. In 2 Cor 8:15 Paul grounds his argument unexpectedly in the experience of Israel gathering manna in the desert: equality was achieved, independently of personal exertion, by God, who gave with an even hand according to need. Paul touches briefly here on the theme of “living from God.”3
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus' compassion results in a girl restored to life and a woman healed.
* [5:28] Both in the case of Jairus and his daughter (Mk 5:23) and in the case of the hemorrhage victim, the inner conviction that physical contact (Mk 5:30) accompanied by faith in Jesus’ saving power could effect a cure was rewarded.4
John Shea, S.J. comments that one of these readings is not like the others. Or is it? Our second reading stands out for not explicitly mentioning death.
Death may be the ultimate form of poverty, but so many people live in poverty. In her autobiography, American author Zora Neale Hurston, wrote, “There is something about poverty that smells like death.” Death and poverty are linked. None of us can raise the dead, but we can share our resources and talents with those in need. In this way, we can share in Jesus’ power over death.5
Don Schwager quotes “The long-suffering of parents,” by Peter Chrysologus (400-450 AD).
"Let us, if it is pleasing to you, speak for a moment of the pains and anxieties which parents take upon themselves and endure in patience out of love and affection for their children. Here, surrounded by her family and by the sympathy and affection of her relations, a daughter lies upon her bed of suffering. She is fading in body. Her father's mind and spirit are worn with grief. She is suffering the inward pangs of her sickness. He, unwashed, unkempt, is absorbed wholly in sorrow. He suffers and endures before the eyes of the world. She is sinking into the quiet of death... Alas! why are children indifferent to these things! Why are they not mindful of them? Why are they not eager to make a return to their parents for them? But the love of parents goes on nevertheless; and whatever parents bestow upon their children, God, the parent of us all, will duly repay." (excerpt from SERMON 33.2)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15 comments that St. Paul explains why Jesus made such a sacrifice: “So that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus took on the “poverty” of our human limitations so that we could inherit the richness of eternal life. He entered so fully into our poverty, in fact, that he endured death—all so that we could live forever.
Now, because of Jesus’ sacrifice, you can receive his riches every single day. But how? Today’s Gospel shows us the way. Both Jairus and the hemorrhaging woman knew they were in desperate circumstances and that they needed the healing that only Jesus could provide. Similarly, when we acknowledge our spiritual poverty, we open our hearts to receive Jesus’ riches.7
Friar Jude Winkler explores two theories in the Bible about the nature of death. Tertullian expressed that our excess is stolen from the poor. Friar Jude reminds us of the similarity of the reanimation of Jarius' daughter by Jesus and the action of Paul in Acts.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, reflects that when he first gave the “Great Themes of Scripture” talks as a young priest in 1973, he couldn’t begin to imagine how they would change his life, and apparently the lives of many others.
When we have an understanding of the great themes of Scripture, the whole book from Genesis to Revelation, we see it as communicating a divine pattern to humanity. One basic message is finally communicated to all Spirit-filled people who enter this faith dialogue with the Scriptures. The message of “Good News” is this: You are loved. You are unique. You are free. You are on the way. You are going somewhere. Your life has meaning. That is all grounded in the experience and the knowledge and the reality of the unconditional love of God. This is what we mean by being “saved.”8
Our path to being “saved” invites us to compassion and a preferential option to restore life to the poor.
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