13 Sunday B #98
Wis 1, 13-15. 2, 23-24
Ps 30
2 Cor 8, 7-9. 13-15
Mk 5, 21-43
Saint Mary’s Church,
Marlboro, N.Y.
June 28, 2015
Deacon Tom Cornell
Our
first reading from the Book of Wisdom
reminds us that all creation is good, and that God created us in his own image
and likeness. We read in Genesis that at
the Creation God gave man dominion over the earth and over all that is in it, not
to despoil or misuse it but to till it, to make it prosper, to nurture our
common home.
The
whole world has been waiting for the Holy Father, Pope Francis, to weigh in on
the ecological crisis. Is it a
crisis? Is climate change, global
warming a fact or fraud? Is it the
result of human activity? Is Mother
Earth under threat? Is it a matter of
life and death? Is the scientific
evidence in? Is it a moral
question? On June 18, the
Pope gave his answer in an encyclical letter, addressed to all people living on
Earth. Its title is Laudato Si’, or Be Thou
Praised, from The Canticle of the
Creatures by Saint Francis of Assisi. The answer is yes. Yes, it’s real. Yes, 97 percent of all scientists agree. Yes, this is a moral, a religious question
and should be addressed from the pulpit.
Otherwise, why would the Holy Father publish such a letter, almost 200
pages long? The response world-wide has been
overwhelmingly favorable. Our Pope is
seen, by Protestants as well as Catholics, by non-Christians as well as
Christians, by non-believers as well as believers, as the preeminent voice of
conscience in the world today. One of
Pope Francis’s major points in his letter is that environmental degradation
hurts first and worst the poor. Let us
consider that in light of today’s Gospel reading.
Jairus
was an official of the local synagogue, a well-respected, 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
death’s door. 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.
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 Jesus 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. Word comes that his daughter has died. Jesus tells him not to fear but to have faith. As they approach Jairus’ house they hear the
din of wailing. 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 aside who come
first, not the big-shots, but the little-shots. Nowadays we call it “the preferential option
for the poor.” Not that any are
excluded! The Holy Father makes it clear
in his really beautiful encyclical that Christian solidarity is universal
friendship, no one is left out. But
those who have the means must be especially mindful and open-hearted and
open-handed to the poor, as Paul tells us in our second reading today. And everyone can do something to stem the
tide of pollution. Plant a tree, or at
least a tomato. Eat locally grown
food. No more plastic bags from the
supermarket. Take reusable cloth bags of
your own. Don’t flush for everything. Dry your clothes in the sun and the breeze! They’ll last longer and smell better. Little steps like these make a difference,
and they raise consciousness.
