Homily 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B I Homily 30 June 2024 Year B

 

My dear friends today we celebrate the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time year B. This week’s readings take us deeper into the subject of life and death. Death is perhaps the most common thing around us. It affects every living being be it human, animal, bird, or insect. However, our society today does not want to accept the reality of death. Just go around a supermarket and you will see shelves full of products designed to keep us young; anti-wrinkle creams, energy drinks, vitamin supplements – everything gives us a message that we can put off death for as long as we like. Quite often we play the blame game, blaming God for all that is happening in our lives, right from natural disasters to war, it's all God’s fault. Death raises the question about the meaning of human life. Is death merely the dissolution of the physical body or is it a larger reality?

It is in this context that the first reading from the book of Wisdom of Solomon wants to give us the message that God’s creation was good. The text says, “For righteousness is immortal... for God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity” (Wis 1:15, 2:23). I remember one of my spiritual guides used to say, “God does not create junk.” Our God is a God of life and it is His will that we should live our life to the fullest, to eternity. One of the most important creations of God is us – human beings! We are called to love ourselves and love others. Each one of us has been specially created by God - just the way He wanted us to be. We need to therefore find our original selves. At the same time, we have to recognize that each person is made in the image of God and we have to treat everyone with love and respect.

The Principle and Foundation in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola (No. 23), tells us that “Human beings are created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by means of doing this to save their souls.” The goal of our lives is to know, love and serve God in the here and now, and by doing this share in God’s life forever. I believe this reading invites us to develop an attitude of gratitude towards many things that we take for granted in our lives – when was the last time we thanked God for the gift of our life and the good health that we have? While we generally speak about physical death, there is also the reality of spiritual death. Spiritual death is brought about by being alienated from God through sin. The goodness in God’s creation was corrupted by Satan’s jealousy. Those living in a state of sin are unable to surrender and trust in the love of God and they tend to see death as the end.

The second reading taken from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, is set in the context of Paul’s collection of resources for the Jerusalem church.  In the late 40s A.D., a famine swept across Judea, and Christians in Jerusalem needed finances. In response to the request made by the leaders of the Jerusalem Church, Paul encouraged Christians to contribute to an offering to provide relief for Jerusalem Christians. He begins by commending their growth of virtues and then encourages them to respond generously to this offering as well. Referring to the hymn of Kenosis, i.e. self-emptying from his letter to the Philippians, Paul lets the Corinthians know that they have experienced a direct benefit from Christ’s sacrifice and therefore they should respond by being generous to others. He encourages them to begin the work that they had earlier expressed an interest in even though they doubted their resources to make the kind of offering that they wanted to make. Paul wants to assure them that no one will hold them accountable for what they don’t have. They need to be concerned only with what they do have and tailor their efforts to that. He exhorts the Corinthians who have in abundance now, to share with the impoverished Church of Jerusalem. The time might come when the Corinthians need help.  At that point, Jerusalem (or other) Christians can be expected to help.  The church is after all a family where we help each other out. He ends by referring to a quotation from Exodus which was about the collecting of manna in the desert (Ex 16:18) with the message that just as God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness, so will God provide for the Corinthians who give generously. If Paul were to write this letter to us today, I believe he would address those who don’t reach out to others thinking that their talents, time, or resources are insufficient. At the same time, he would also address the rich churches and associations who are keener on increasing their fixed deposits in banks, instead of using that money to help people with their medical and educational difficulties.

Mark the gospel writer’s favourite snack was surely a sandwich, just like the gospel on the Tenth Sunday, today’s gospel is also a sandwich construction – a different story is placed between the beginning and end of another story. Mark describes Jesus healing two women – the daughter of Jairus, one of the leaders of the synagogue, and the woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. Both these narratives are rich in human emotions and one of the most prominent emotions is that of desperation. Both Jairus and the woman were desperately seeking assistance. It is in this desperation and even helplessness that they reach out to Jesus. When was the last time you were desperate? It has been my experience that we pray best when we are desperate. This desperation is what causes a miracle.

The second emotion that gets highlighted is the compassion of Jesus. In both cases, we see a Jesus who cares. He does not abandon us in our suffering but stands by us and suffers with us. In Christ, the power of death is broken and we embrace the power to live unbound by death. Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ gift of eternal life. The number 12 is common among both women. Both were healed - one stopped bleeding, which restored her life, and the other had her life restored so that she could eventually produce life. Jesus grants life-changing healing. It is a healing that crosses all boundaries.

The question before us today is can we alter the conditions of people’s lives? Can we bring healing into troubled circumstances crossing all boundaries of ethnicity, language and religion? To do this we are called to be generous - generous not only with our wallets but also with our time and energy. Let us all thank God for the goodness in our lives and pray for the healing touch of Jesus. May God bless us all.