The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to share our experience of full life with others through our example of faith in God and action to care for the spiritual and material needs of others.
The reading from the Book of Wisdom compares the life of the righteous and the wicked.
* [1:1–6:21] The reward is the gift of immortality, to the righteous (1:15; 3:1–3), but not to the wicked (5:1–13). Contrasts between these two groups dominate chaps. 1–5. The philosophy of the wicked and their persecution of the righteous are dramatically presented in 1:16–2:24. New light is shed on the suffering of the righteous (3:1–9), childlessness (3:13–15), and premature death (4:7–16)—in contrast to the fate of the wicked (3:10–12, 16–19; 4:3–6, 17–20). (Wisdom, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB, n.d.)
* [2:24] Envy: perhaps because Adam was in the image of God or because Adam had control over all creation. Devil: the first biblical text to equate the serpent of Gn 3 with the devil. (Wisdom, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB, n.d.)
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. (Psalms, PSALM 30 | USCCB, n.d.)
The reading from the Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians urges generosity in giving.
* [8:7] The charitable service Paul is promoting is seen briefly and in passing within the perspective of Paul’s theology of the charisms. Earnestness (spoudē): this or related terms occur also in 2 Cor 8:22 (“earnest”) and 2 Cor 8:8, 16, 17 (“concern”).
* [8:9] The dialectic of Jesus’ experience, expressed earlier in terms of life and death (2 Cor 5:15), sin and righteousness (2 Cor 5:21), is now rephrased in terms of poverty and wealth. Many scholars think this is a reference to Jesus’ preexistence with God (his “wealth”) and to his incarnation and death (his “poverty”), and they point to the similarity between this verse and Phil 2:6–8. Others interpret the wealth and poverty as succeeding phases of Jesus’ earthly existence, e.g., his sense of intimacy with God and then the desolation and the feeling of abandonment by God in his death (cf. Mk 15:34).
* [8:11] Eager: the word prothymia also occurs in 2 Cor 8:12, 19; 9:2.
* [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.” (2 Corinthians, CHAPTER 8 | USCCB, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Mark, a girl is restored to life and a woman is healed.
* [5:21–43] The story of the raising to life of Jairus’s daughter is divided into two parts: Mk 5:21–24; 5:35–43. Between these two separated parts the account of the cure of the hemorrhage victim (Mk 5:25–34) is interposed. This technique of intercalating or sandwiching one story within another occurs several times in Mk 3:19b–21; Mk 3:22–30; 3:31–35; 6:6b–13; 6:14–29; 6:30; 11:12–14; 11:15–19; 11:20–25; 14:53; 14:54; 14:55–65; 14:66–73.
* [5:23] Lay your hands on her: this act for the purpose of healing is frequent in Mk 6:5; 7:32–35; 8:23–25; 16:18 and is also found in Mt 9:18; Lk 4:40; 13:13; Acts 9:17; 28:8.
* [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.
* [5:35] The faith of Jairus was put to a twofold test: (1) that his daughter might be cured and, now that she had died, (2) that she might be restored to life. His faith contrasts with the lack of faith of the crowd.
* [5:39] Not dead but asleep: the New Testament often refers to death as sleep (Mt 27:52; Jn 11:11; 1 Cor 15:6; 1 Thes 4:13–15); see note on Mt 9:24.
* [5:41] Arise: the Greek verb egeirein is the verb generally used to express resurrection from death (Mk 6:14, 16; Mt 11:5; Lk 7:14) and Jesus’ own resurrection (Mk 16:6; Mt 28:6; Lk 24:6). (Mark, CHAPTER 5 | USCCB, n.d.)
George Butterfield does some part-time work as a hospital chaplain. He sees dying and death up close, along with the value of drugs to help prolong life. However, it often seems that we chaplains must justify our existence. The focus tends to be on medicine and medical care only. It has not always been this way. In the year 369, there was a famine that encompassed the diocese led by St. Basil of Caesarea (in modern day Turkey). Bishop Basil encouraged the rich to support his efforts to begin a soup kitchen where soup and meat were supplied to the hungry.
The Gospel lesson is well known. Jesus heals a synagogue official’s daughter and a woman who had a flow of blood and had exhausted her finances in seeking healing. The part of the story that always makes me smile is where, after the 12-year-old dead child is brought back to life, Jesus tells them to get her something to eat. God is concerned about the basic needs of his children. Whether it is the need for soup and meat, prayer, the proper use of drugs, medical care, or basic human compassion, our God cares about us.
As the psalmist says, “You changed my mourning into dancing; O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.” (Creighton U. Daily Reflection, 2024)
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)
[Peter Chrysologus, 400-450 AD, was a renowned preacher and bishop of Ravena in the 5th century] (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 5:21-43 comments that the kinds of stories like the ones in today’s Gospel reading didn’t just happen in the past. Jesus still acts powerfully in our own time and place. Conversions, healings, answers to prayer—these continue to abound.
So believe in Jesus’ power, as Jairus and this woman did. Step out in faith and ask for what you need. Keep asking even if you don’t see immediate results. Even if it seems as if you’re not getting what you’re asking for, don’t give up hope! Believe that Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth, has the power—and the desire—to heal you and give you new life. This is why he came to earth, and he will do it, in his own perfect time and way!
“Jesus, I am reaching out to touch your cloak today. Heal me and pour your life into me!” (Meditation on Mark 5:21-43, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler notes that the Book of Wisdom, written in Greek, is one of the last written books in the Hebrew Testament and it shows the influence of Greek philosophy at that time. The passage from 2 Corinthians is the part of the “reconciliation letter” of Paul that follows the “angry letter” in the texts addressed to the Corinthians. Friar Jude notes that the healings in the Gospel of Mark involve the “Big Three Apostles” and the afflicted are deemed to be “saved” when spiritual healing accompanies the physical healing.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, emphasizes the beautiful freedom that arises when we place contemplation at the center of our lives. He believes that the combination of human action from a contemplative center is the greatest art form. When action and contemplation are united, we have greater beauty, symmetry, and transformation—lives and actions that inherently sparkle and heal, though the shadow is still present.
We cannot grow in the great art form, the integrative dance of action and contemplation, without a strong tolerance for ambiguity, an ability to allow, forgive, and contain a certain degree of anxiety, and a willingness to not know—and not even need to know. This is how we allow and encounter Mystery.
Of course, we can only do this if Someone Else is holding us as a great Lover, taking away our fear, doing the knowing, and satisfying our desire. If we can allow that Someone Else to embrace us, we will go back to our life of action with new vitality, but it will now be smooth, One Flow. It will be “no longer you” who acts or contemplates but the Life of One who lives in you now acting for you and with you and as you (see Galatians 2:20)! (Rohr, n.d.)
We are invited to fullness of life (John 10:10) through our faith and action in caring for the material needs of the people we encounter on our journey.
References
Creighton U. Daily Reflection. (2024, June 30). Online Ministries. Retrieved June 30, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/063024.html
Mark, CHAPTER 5 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 30, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/5?21
Meditation on Mark 5:21-43. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved June 30, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/06/30/1013072/
Psalms, PSALM 30 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 30, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/30?2
Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. CAC Daily Meditations. Retrieved June 30, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-foundational-practice/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved June 30, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=jun30
2 Corinthians, CHAPTER 8 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 30, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2corinthians/8?7
Wisdom, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 30, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/wisdom/1?13
Wisdom, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 30, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/wisdom/2
