THIRTEENTH SUNDAY - B

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – B (Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-24; 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15; Mark 5:21-43) Theme: The Power of God’s Touch: We are Saved! Reflection God’s Touch: A Question? An Exclamation! Or An Affirmation. - We celebrate today the thirteenth Sunday of the Year. In particular this Sunday reminds us of the Power of God’s Touch. All the reading of the day teach us the truth: we are touched by God and by this touch we are healed, we are purified and we are redeemed. The central message of the word of God, read and proclaimed now before us, is that God wants to be very closer to man and He will to embrace him. - We may draw many themes from today’s readings: The justice of God as in the first reading; or equality of all in having the earthly goods as in the second reading; or/and finally, the mercy of Jesus towards the sick and the dying. But today, we limit ourselves to one theme different than what are mentioned above, yet it contains in itself all the cited themes. And the theme, as well introduced, is this: that Power of God’s touch saves us. - God touches man! Is it a question? Or is it an exclamation! Or is it an affirmation. The words are beautiful and sound well to listen, “God touches man”. But to see its authenticity and affirm its efficacy is not that simple. Here comes the act of faith. In faith we experience that God touches us and that our God is not far away from us. o Pagan Experience: For the world of unbelievers and the pagans, this statement that “God touches man” remains still an unanswerable question. They could not digest how, if at all there is a God and that God is really a God who is above all, can he touch man and how can he make himself reachable to man. God is above all and beyond all human comprehension. And if it so, for them, this statement is ridiculous and is nonsensical. Therefore, it is still a question for them. o Religious Experience: For the believers and the religious people and who have embraced faith in God, this statement is no more a question. But still, it remains an Exclamation! It is a thing of surprise. It is an experience of wonder. They feel that somewhere and somehow there is a touch of God. They see that their spirit is being elevated and they remain in the inexpressible and unexplainable condition where they exclaim with “owe and wonder” that they are touched by their God. This is common to any religious experience of the world religions. What is noticed there is just an emotional feeling that they have God’s touch. It goes little further, cancels the question of the pagan and unbelievers, and enters into the exclamation. Therefore, it is still an exclamation for them. o Christian Experience: “God touched man” or “God still touches man” are neither the statements of the doubt any more (as of the experience of pagans and unbelievers), nor the statements of wonder and surprise any more (as of the experience of the ordinary religious people). They are the statements of “Affirmation”. In the Christian experience it is affirmed that God has already touched man and still he is touching him. He has already touched man when He assumed the human nature and condition in the Incarnation. He is still touching and wishes to touch man in the Eucharistic celebration where Jesus enters and makes his presence pass through the recipient of the communion. o God of Touch: Christian God is not just a God of words. Yes, He speaks to man and he reaches to man in the words of the Prophets. But he does not stop there. His reaching has arrived to its peak level and to its highest point: He touched the human nature and He wore the human condition in Jesus Christ. Here He is not just a Jewish God who spoke and who speaks with mere words. Here He is a Christian God who acted and acts with the concrete events: with the Incarnation, Passion, Death and Resurrection. These events open the truth: God will to be with man and raise man above and finally to make him get up. These are the gestures also seen in the Gospel of today and we will reflect them a while after. o An answer Unveiled: The question of the pagans and unbelievers is answered. The exclamation of the religious people is purified and made whole. The answer and the wholeness of the statement are found in the very life of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, now pagan have no reason to question. Therefore, now ordinary religious people have no reason to be satisfied with a mere feeling. They are called to accept and embrace the truth that God touches man and it is confirmed in the Christian experience. Christian experience, therefore, is not just an experience of faith and it goes beyond: it is the full and active participation in the very life of Christ. God is Life and He shares his Life with Man: The Summary of the Readings - First Reading – What is created is Life, not the death: o The first reading of today from the Book of Wisdom reveals the truth that everything is created by God to be in existence and to be alive. Let us listen to the words again: “For he created all things so that they might exist; the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them, and the domino of Hades is not on earth” (v. 14). These are words and words from the wisdom of Salomon and these wise words are the words of the Spirit because wisdom is the gift of the Holy Spirit. o The author starts his book with these words and in the beginning itself, in the first two chapters, makes the observation of human life and death. God has created only life, not the death. Death is not God’s intention or creation: “God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living” (v. 13) and he concludes the second chapter of the Book with the same affirmation: “for God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it” (Wis 2:23-24). o Creation is full and whole because it is being created by the Word of God in the Spirit. In particular mode, man is created in his “image and likeness”. Therefore, will of God is that everywhere there is life and there should be existence. But man suddenly finds his life has a block: the death. He grumbles against God for creating this frightening reality called death without knowing where does it come from. He thinks that even death is created by God. Once again the words of Wisdom unveil the truth that “everything is whole and complete with the life” because it comes from the act of the Living God. The words of Wisdom unveil also the truth that “the death is found in the world because of the devil’s act”. o The wholeness of creation and of man is now in danger with the entrance of death in the world. The purpose of God is that man is in life and with life always. This purpose is blocked by the fear of death. God who never wants the death of the living and in particular, the death of his creature, takes an initiative step to come to man as man so that he can put full stop to the power of death. o This is the Christian mystery: God has seen the helplessness and dramatic condition of man in his confrontation with the sin and death. God who has seen does not just speaks a word but Sends the Word, His Word into the Flesh, so that he can open the way for man. Jesus Christ, the Word made Flesh, has fulfilled what God has planned with his Passion, Death and Resurrection. The fruit is this: God touched man; He healed him; He brought him out from the fear and clutches of death; and finally, He made him alive again because He is God of Living who never desired the death. The power of touch of God is this: it renews man and revives him into life. - Second Reading – God’s poverty makes us Rich: o The beautiful message of St. Paul is once again admonishes to acknowledge the truth of God’s touch. Why did at all Christ has come into the world? Why did at all God willed to appear in the human form? Why did at all Christ shared in the human slavery condition? These questions find their answer in today’s second reading and from the inspiring words of Paul: “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). o Context of the passage is this: there was a charitable collection to be made for the Church of Jerusalem and for the difficult condition of the church. Paul encourages his people to share their having with generous contributions. He dedicates two chapters, eighth and ninth, of the second letter to the Corinthians for this purpose. Within this context appears also today’s reading. Paul reminds them the generosity of Jesus Christ: he takes to himself poor human condition so that it will be elevated into spiritual fructification. He renounces his rich status and assumes the poverty so that the poor man becomes rich. o His message primarily manifests his exhortation in the economic and social level but it simultaneously reveals his invitation to be in Christ and to be as Christ: to be rich in the Spirit and to be rich with the Life of God. This is the spiritual richness that Paul essentially speaks about. We are poor in the spirit because of the inclinations to sin and because of the influence of death. But with the coming of Christ the scenario is changed. We have become spiritually rich because we are given life. We are touched by God’s generous love: we are given life. o This fact reminds us that we are not created poor though we appear poor in the world. We are created to be rich and to be full. But not in the worldly sphere and in the earthly measure. We are created and called to be rich in the Holy Spirit. Where there is Spirit of God there is life. We are filled with the Spirit of God and thus, we are filled with life. We are people of Life, not of death. The power of touch of God is this: it empowers the poor and makes them rich, not in life, but with life. - Gospel – Jesus extends his hand, touches and raises the child to life: o In the Gospel we have two miracles very tightly linked: a woman suffers from the illness from twelve years and a twelve year girl faces death. The common elements are two: first, the number twelve and second, the experience of Jesus’ touch.  First – “Twelve”: Twelve is the number which is more frequent in the bible as number seven. Seven indicates the fullness and completeness. Then what about the number twelve? What does it indicate? It is difficult to answer. One thing may be observed: in the Old Testament it indicates the twelve tribes of Israel and in the Pauline epistles it indicates the twelve fruits of the Spirit. Other than this, what it could indicate when it is compared with the number seven, is this: when the number seven points to the completeness, number twelve which is superior to it, must indicate to that which is more. It should indicate and point, thus, to the reality beyond the measure and beyond calculation. It also reveals that it enters entirely into God’s sphere because we cannot measure what is God and his nature. This also reveals that the two miracles of Jesus manifest the very sphere of God to humanity: Sphere of God’s Life Kept Open for Man.  Second – Jesus’ Touch: Woman touches Jesus and Jesus touches the girl. In the first instance, Jesus allows himself to be touched by human being; he opens the possibility for man to touch him; this is why, the woman was able to touch Jesus and finds herself healed immediately. In the second instance, Jesus extends his hand and touches the child/girl; he has come to be with man and to reach out to man; he has come to show that God’s presence is amidst them and God’s hand is extended to him; to manifest this truth to the humanity that Jesus touches the girl and raises her up. This also indicates the stage of faith: woman is mature in faith and girl still depends on the faith of her parents. Yet, both of them experience the healing touch of Jesus: both of them are saved from the power of sickness and of death. Jesus has given them Life. o Woman and her Faith: In the case of woman it is her faith that has saved her. If we observe well the gospel we find four gestures of the woman:  Hears the truth of Jesus: the woman has heard that Jesus is has come there to her town and to her village and that He has done already many wonderful things. Hearing the message of Jesus’ presence is the first step.  Comes to meet Jesus: Her listening is not complete at home itself. She has come. She has reached the presence of Jesus. Her hearing made her to move towards Jesus.  Believes Jesus: She heard that Jesus could do good things. She came with the faith that he would heal her. Hearing and coming led her to believe in him. His presence made her to be confident and hoping for the healing.  Touches Jesus: Hearing the message, coming to his presence and just believing are not enough. The faith has to reach another level. It has to touch Jesus. The woman did the same. She touched and got healed.  What is learnt from her gesture is the process of faith through which we are touched by Jesus and led into new life and new beginning in him. o Little Girl and the Faith of her Father: In the case of the girl the story is different. Instead of the girt, her father professes his faith in Jesus and pleads him to cure her. Even if the condition worsens from sickness to death there is nothing to worry only if he has faith. That’s what Jesus: “do not fear, only have faith”. Jesus does not mind what the crowd is talking or murmuring. He knows what he has to do. What he needs is the faith on the part of the girl or her parents. Once that faith was expressed he goes to the girl, touches her and raises her up. For him illness is a momentary and death is just a sleep. He knows that it is God himself who is reaching out to man and touching him profoundly so that man has a salvation. o What is understood from this is the fact that not only the proper faith but also faith of other has an efficacious nature in the Christian faith. The first event in which such kind of faith is professed is the baptism: the child is not in the condition of making consent and thus, it is parents who make the consent on behalf of the child and it is valid perfectly because the grace-fetching nature that faith has. Prayer for each other, even praying for the dead is also part of this kind of faith. Jesus himself prayed for others, during his earthly life and even more on the cross, and taught that the prayer of others can bring “healing and salvation” for us. - All the reading manifest that God does not want us to be in the pathetic and perishing condition. He wills that we are well and whole. He desires that we are well physically, mentally and socially. He desires that we are whole spiritually. Not only that He desires our well being but He does everything possible to make man well and whole. He has already done this in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Even now He does the same through the presence and mission of the Church and the Sacraments: He Heals and Saves Us by His Touch. Conclusion: We are called to extend the Same Divine Touch to the Needy and to All - Well. What are we to do today? Nourished by the word and sacrament, we experience the same divine touch. We are healed. We are cured. We are saved by God’s touch. Enough? Shall we keep the efficacy of the touch with ourselves or can we open the door of our life to extend it to others? - Magic of Human Touch: We already know what magic the human touch does in our life. A kind word can comfort us. A small act can console us. A smiling face can heal us. A simple touch can encourage us. This is our daily experience. Each one of us has this magic of touch. We want to receive it often from others and we also give it often to others. The golden rule of the New Testament empowers us here: we have to do to others what we want to get from them (Mt 7:12). We like to be touched and felt loved and the same we have to do: we have to extend our touching hand and warmly embrace all those who are around us, the discouraged, the depressed, the desperate and the neglected. - Power of Divine Touch: to do this we need to remember two things: o First of all, we have to acknowledge that we are touched by Jesus and that we are profoundly and deeply embraced by his loving arms. As Christians what we have is not only for ourselves, but for others. The same divine touch we have received we have to extend. We should realize that we are capable of doing this magic. We are capable of healing others. We are capable of empowering others. We are capable of creating wonders in the life of others. The only defect is: we close our eyes and neglect our Christian capacity. o Secondly, once we become aware of our capacity and acknowledge our power of touch received from the Lord, we do not keep silent. It makes us to rise up from our seats to reach out others. Our hands become longer and bigger because our hearts become wider and larger. We reach out to others and thus, we can also become the cause of healing and salvation for others. Can we do it? We can because it is not we who are doing but Jesus, the eternal doctor, who is extending his touch with the means of our hands. - Touch the Lord and Touch others: Eucharist in which we participate is not just a while host to be eaten. It is the Body of Jesus. He is coming into us. He is touching us. He is reaching us. He is taking hold of us. He is filling us with his warmth love. He is empowering us to go and do the same in his memory: Do this in memory of me” are the central and missionary word of Jesus to all those who participate in this healing and saving banquet. We become partakers of the Eucharist and thus we become also the Sharers of the Eucharist. We are touched so that we will touch others. We are healed so that we will heal others. We are saved so that we will save others. That is the Power of God’s Touch: We are saved and we are saving others.