23rd Sunday after
Pentecost – November 4, 2012
Epistle Philippians
3: 17-21, 4: 1-3 ◊
Gospel Matthew 9: 18-26
While
his daughter is sinking into the quiet of death, a ruler approaches our Lord in
torment. St. Mark tells us this was Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue. Matthew
tells us Jairus adored Him first, which
means he recognized Jesus as God. But there is another important reason we know
that Jairus recognized Him as God -- he asked Jesus to lay His hand on his
daughter. Jairus was a ruler of the synagogue and therefore had studied
scripture. He knew that all creation was made by the word of God, but that man was
made by the hand of God. Jairus believed that the same hand that created her
could now lay His hand upon his daughter to remake her.
But
a woman who suffered from a bleeding illness for 12 years stopped our Lord on
His way. We can assume the illness had consumed much of her money on “cures”
that didn’t work, but it did not consume her faith. She knew, because her faith
told her so, that if she could only touch the hem of his garment she would be
cured. This woman saw in the hem of Christ’s garment the power of His divinity.
She
was considered unclean by others because of her illness and therefore she was
embarrassed to approach Jesus openly. She approached through the crowd from
behind Him as He passed by, and reached out and touched His garment. As St. Mark
tells us in his account of this incident, “she felt in her body that she was
healed.” Jesus knew what she had done
and He turned to her and said, “Be of good heart, daughter; thy faith has made
thee whole.” She was now able to live a normal life in the society of her day,
and when Jesus tells her to “be of good heart,” He is cautioning her to remain
strong in her faith and avoid sin till the end of her life.
This
woman is important to us because she gives us the manner of a secret confession
by which a sinner may wipe away sin, and how the sinner, whose sins are known
only to God, is not forced to bare the shame of his conscience in public, and
how through pardon men can forestall judgment. Her story foreshadowed the
Sacrament of Penance or Confession.
Jesus
tarried with the woman because He knew what was forthcoming. He knew Jairus’
daughter would die, and He knew the lesson He wished to teach when He raised
her from the dead. When they arrived at the home of Jairus, Jesus tells all the
mourners and musicians to leave. He brings into the room with Him Peter, James
and John and the mother and father of the dead girl. He tells them she is not
dead, but sleeping. He takes her hand and says, “Maid, I say to thee arise,”
and instantly the dead girl awakens, gets up and walks. Christ spoke not to her body, which was
already beginning to return to dust, but He commanded her soul to reenter her
body and give it life once again.
St.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15: 52, “In a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, the dead shall rise.” This is how quick the resurrection of all of us
will happen. The prophet Ezechiel had a vision of the resurrection,
as he reported in Chapter 37, when he was brought to a field
containing a very large number of the dry bones of the dead. He was told by God
to pray and preach to them, and before his eyes the bones were joined together
with muscle and blood and skin and souls.
Death
places all of us on a common level as all of our honors and wealth and
pleasures disappear with us into the grave as we return to the dust we came
from. We who follow Christ are not supposed to mourn the loss of earthly things
including the loss of our lives. But those who are of the world greatly mourn
the loss of the wealth and pleasures of earth. We, however, are reminded by St. Paul that the “fashion of
this world passes away.” (1 Corinthians 7:
31) It passes away
with us.
Consider
also, that when we die the dangers to our salvation die with us, as there are
no more temptations, no more risks of ever offending God again. For the just
who have led lives of innocence or who have done penance for their sins, they
will find in death all that they ever hoped for and more. They will find the
eternal vision of the Blessed Trinity. St. Paul tells us: "Eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things
God hath prepared for them that love Him.”
We will find unspeakable joy and this joy will last forever. St.
Augustine added: The felicity, that is, the happiness of heaven can be
acquired, but never estimated; it can be merited, but not described.
We
all must certainly wish to have a holy and happy end, to die a good death.
Well, then, let us lead a good life; for a good life is always followed by a
good death. Let us guard against every injustice and every sin, and if we have
sinned let us bring forth fruits worthy of penance. Stand firm in the Lord, cling
to our true Catholic faith, and serve God with fidelity all the days of our
lives. Then we may confidently hope that our last hour will be the happiest of
our whole lives, for we will die the death of the just. The father of a bishop
I know, who was dying, when asked by his physician if he wanted to be resuscitated,
said, “Oh, no, I’ve been waiting for this all my life.” If we follow Christ, we
also can wait with anticipation of being with Him in His kingdom. +++
We
Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass
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