13 Sunday B #98
Wis 1, 13-15. 2, 23-24
Ps 30
2 Cor 8, 7. 9. 13-15
Mk 5, 21-43
Peter Maurin Farm
July 1, 2012
July 1, 2012
Deacon Tom Cornell
Our first reading from the Book of Wisdom reminds us that all creation is good, and that God
created human beings in his own image and likeness, the basis of all human
rights. The reading from Second Corinthians is a clear command to
us Christians to share what we have beyond our own needs with those who have
not. Our reading from Mark’s Gospel is
deceptively simple. Mark is like
that. Sometimes Mark seems overly
simple, if I may say so. Jesus did this
and then Jesus did that; this happened and then that. The most common phrase in Mark is “and
then.” Sounds like a kid reprising a
movie, doesn’t it? But take a second
look.
Jairus was an official of the local
synagogue, a well-respected and presumably a wealthy man. He didn’t have to push through the crowd to
approach Jesus. People made way for
him. Then he fell at Jesus’ feet to
beseech him. It was important in those
days how one approached another person in public, especially someone he did not
know, and especially if he was going to ask a favor. Although Jairus was a leading citizen, he
prostrated himself on the ground before the penniless itinerant preacher-healer
Jesus and begged: “My daughter is at the
point of death. Please, come lay your
hands on her that she may get well and live!”
Mark interrupts the story abruptly. A poor old woman enters the scene. Jairus is kept waiting, by an old
impoverished woman, a woman suffering from a flow of blood. It is not just that she is ill and poor and a
woman; she is unclean, ritually unclean.
Women were considered unclean once a month, but this poor woman had been
haemorrhaging for twelve years straight.
By the letter of the law she should not have been in any crowd. She should not have come into contact with
any other person lest that one too be declared unclean, but up in Galilee the Law
was not as strictly observed as it was in Jerusalem.
Notice how the woman approaches Jesus. The crowd makes no way for her, she does not
fall before him, she is afraid even to approach him face to face. She dares only to stretch out her hand and
touch his clothing, “the hem of his garment,” from behind. When Jesus realizes that healing power has
gone out of him, he demands to know who has touched him. Then in fear and trembling she comes forward
and falls before him to explain herself.
“Daughter,” he tells her, “your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your
affliction.”
Then Mark returns to the story of Jairus and his
daughter. Word comes that she has
died. Jesus counsels faith instead of
fear. Then the din of wailing as they
approach Jairus’ house. Finally the
touching scene: Jesus takes her hand and says, “Little girl, I say to you,
arise!” She gets up and walks around,
and finally the charming detail, “Give her something to eat.”
What are we to take from this “miracle within a
miracle,” as it is called, the story of Jairus interrupted by the story of the
woman with a flow of blood? The action
stops, the powerful synagogue leader is put on hold, for the sake of a woman, a
second-class citizen in those days, and worse, one who is poor and worse than that, “unclean.” The lesson is this: in the economy of Jesus, in God’s economy,
it’s not the big-shots, but the poor, the sick, those who are pushed around and
those who are pushed aside who come first, not the big-shots, but the
little-shots. Nowadays we call it “the
preferential option for the poor.”
But aren’t the poor poor because they
are lazy? Isn’t it their own fault in
the richest nation on earth, the richest in world history? During this time of economic distress, I
don’t think many of us are going to fall for that line. For decades many of us, I included, have
lived one pay check from homelessness, and worse. Imagine what it feels like when the clerk at
the Unemployment Office hands you your last check and says, “Good luck!” It could happen to any one of us.
It is hazy, hot and humid, but we can
not let pass our nation’s birthday without reflection. On July 4th, 1776, our forefathers
declared our independence in the most powerful document of political
history. For the first time in history a
nation was founded on the premise of God-given inalienable rights for all, at
least on paper. No government can in
justice take away our rights because no government has given us our
rights. They are from God!
And yet today, in the middle of the
“Fortnight of Freedom” that our Archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan has
declared, let us take heed of the threats to our heritage of freedom. They are real. The President claims the right to order the
assassination of anyone he deems a “terrorist,” foreign or US citizen, with no
review, no appeal, no need to explain or justify. Since 1215 the British government has been
obliged to justify imprisonment, no less execution. US law is based upon English Common Law,
including Magna Charta. Good-bye, habeas
corpus! Good-bye, Magna Charta! One hundred and sixty-eight men are being held in Guantanamo Prison in Cuba, most of them, admittedly,
simply because they are Muslim, of Oriental ancestry and in the wrong place at
the wrong time. They have been there for
over ten years despite the lack of any evidence that they have committed any
offense! They are there because we
simply don’t know what to do with them.
Ours is the most wealthy country in
the world, in world history, so we pride ourselves! According to one standard that is correct. But if you take the aggregate wealth of the
nation and divide it up among the citizens, nowhere near! Norway is the richest country in the world by
that calculation. In quality of health
care, we have the best in the world, yes, for those who can pay for it; for
most of us it ranks about 36, just ahead of Slovenia according to the World
Health Organization.
Having destroyed Iraq in order to
save it, we are now at war in four countries.
We spend as much on war, wars past, current and future, as the rest of
the world combined. That money could
heal our sick, educate our young, create jobs to repair our crumbling
infra-structure and see to a dignified retirement for our aged workers. And yet, college students graduate burdened
by debt they may work their lives to liquidate and we congratulate ourselves
that they will not have to pay 7% interest on their loans, only half that for
the next year. And thereafter? As for religious freedom, Catholic Air Force
officers are forced to sign a pledge that they will not hesitate to launch
nuclear weapons of mass destruction upon command even though their use has been
condemned unequivocally by the highest teaching authority of the Church, the
Second Vatican Council .
These are crimes against life itself,
at least as much as contraception. Everyone
knows our Church’s stand on abortion and contraception. How many know our stand on nuclear
weapons? The Vatican has informed the
United Nations that there is no longer any legal or moral justification for
the production and maintenance of nuclear weapons!
Yes, our religious liberty is indeed
under threat. Habeas corpus is under threat.
Magna Charta is under
threat. The planet itself is under
threat. Why all this hullaballoo about
the Affordable Health Act? Do you sense
a lack of proportion here? W
