Homily(2)13th Sunday of
Ordinary Time Year B: Fr. Michael U Udoekpo
Readings: Wis 1:13-15;2:23-34;
Ps30:2,4,5-6,11-13; 2 Cor 8:7,9,13-15; Mark 5:21-43
The Lord is Our Rescuer
In the responsorial Psalm of today,
“I will praise you , Lord, for you are have rescued me” (Ps 30.2a) lies the historical essence of our relationship with
God. In history God remains our savior, our rescuer, our healer who deserves
our praise.
In the Gospel of Mark, today, God’s Son, Jesus not only ministers to the multitude(oxlos),
in the neighborhood of the sea of Galilee, but he rescued many people from illnesses,
including Jairius daughter, and the
woman who was afflicted with hemorrhages for a complete 12 years. To the 12
year girls, the dying daughter of the synagogue official, he said to her,
“Talitha koum,” meaning “little girl, I say to you arise!” She arose to the
amazement of the on-lookers, and walked. To the woman afflicted for 12 years
with hermorrhage, he said, “daughter your faith has saved you. Go in peace and
be cured of your affliction. In each of these healing episodes, faith is
involved in the part of those rescued from death and illnesses.
The writer of the 1st
reading, Book of Wisdom trustingly affirmed that our “God did not make death,
nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all
things that they might have being, and the creature of the world are
wholesome.”
Saint Paul also attested
to this graciousness of God in the 2nd reading, that, though Christ
was rich, for our sake he become poor, so
that by his poverty we might
become rich (2 Cor 8:7,8,9,13-15). He went to the cross that we might have
life.
Evidently, there moments
today that we find ourselves in the situation of synagogue official of today’s
Gospel. Sicknesses are not limited to the materially poor. Children and
relatives of the synagogue, church and government officials do fall sick. Even
though, we can afford to take our
relatives to expensive and specialist hospital, abroad, do we have faith. Do we realized that there are illnesses that
money, positions and the best hospitals in the world cannot not cure? The
synagogue official of today’s gospel seemed to be aware of this fact. I want to
believe, the more reason he came to
Jesus for the healing of his 12 years old daughter. Interestingly, the other
woman , for good twelve symbolic years , perhaps had travelled everywhere, for
a very long time, but found no healing
until she touched Jesus’s cloak with faith.
In our today’s desperate moments of
loneliness, wars and threats of wars,
terrorism, and threats of terrorism , gun violent and threats of gun violent,
poverty, oppression, injustices, illnesses, and loss of a loved ones, may we
imitate with gratitude to God, the centurion and the sick woman of today’s
Bible readings.
