RENEWsletter for June 28, 2009 - 13th Ordinary

Dear Hearts Renewed--
There is something about summer that fills us with life and hope. It's not so much the weather -- some pretty nasty storms can mar the sky and the landscape -- but rather the life that teems in summer. The very first line of the First Reading says, "God did not make death." Winter comes only to be followed by summer. God brings life, not death.

This Sunday is the Thirteenth of the Numbered Sundays, and the readings can be found on the web at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/062809.shtml, and in your Bible at:

Wisdom 1.13-15; 2.23-24
Psalm 30.2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13
2 Corinthians 8.7, 9, 13-15
Mark 5.21-43

The First Reading, as mentioned above, starts off with the declaration that death is not a creation of God (Wis. 1.13). When God created this Universe, he intended that all his handiwork would have being -- nothing built-in would cause anything to decay or be destroyed (ch. 1, v. 14). According to the original specification, justice was to be undying (ch. 1, v. 15), and we humans were to be imperishable (ch. 2, v. 23).

Well, it didn't stay that way. Envy of God's power, jealousy of his goodness, brought death into the world, and we've all inherited it (ch. 2, v. 24)!

Then, as we see in the Responsorial Psalm, God stepped in again and rescued us (Ps. 30.2). We were in danger of going down into the pit, but he drew us clear (v. 4). The nightfall of sin brings the weeping of death, but God's good will brings the dawn of rejoicing in life (v. 6). Let's give thanks to God because he has turned our mourning into dancing (v. 12).

In the Second Reading we see what this rescue operation cost God. Paul is exhorting the Corinthians, who are strong in faith, strong in defending their faith through discourse, strong in knowledge of the Scriptures, strong in earnest steadfastness, and strong in love (2 Cor. 8.7). Yet there is one more thing Paul wants them, and by extension us, to be strong in. And that is grace (v. 14).

In order to rescue us from death, God had to allow his Son to die. He didn't have to do that. He could have just written us off and started all over again. He was rich, but he became poor, so that through that heavy price, we could be saved (v. 9). Paul's message is: Share the wealth, and it is the example he cites... God's sharing of his wealth... that moves us to heed that message.

The Gospel Reading is a story within a story of wealth-sharing. These are two gracious acts of our Lord Jesus that overlap. The synagogue official's daughter was sick unto death (Mark 5.22, 23), and the woman who'd spent all she had trying to get her hemorrhage cured needed help too (vs. 25, 26). Jesus didn't have a lot of privacy back then. He was way too busy sharing his wealth of healing powers. The crowds mobbed him whenever and wherever they found him. He had escaped just before this reading by taking a boat across the lake. But he was back now (vs. 21).

Now we know that, due to the press of the crowd, many many people touched Jesus, but he noticed when one touched him in faith. "Who touched me?" he said (v. 30). The disciples who no doubt were trying to make a path for Jesus through the crowd so he could get the to synagogue official's house, were incredulous. "You're kidding, right? Only about a thousand people have touched you" (v. 31). But Jesus knew who had touched him in faith. He found her, blessed her, and assured her that her faith was what had healed her (v. 34).

Just then word arrived that the synagogue official's daughter had died (v. 35). Jesus was too late. Or was he? God still retains power over death. Jesus continued on the way to the house and took the little girl by her lifeless hand, amidst ridicule from the mourners (vs. 40, 41). "Little girl", he said. "Arise!" The only ones who were not surprised were Jesus and the little girl herself. Jesus knew he could raise her from the dead, and she didn't know she had been dead!

How often, do you suppose, has God rescued us from death... and we didn't even know it? Well, he has, and we do know it, because once we were blind, but now we see (John 9.25). We can see the salvation of our God, and with the Psalmist, give thanks!

Randy Jones
"Those who cannot live say death is inevitable!"