Sunday, June 27, 2021

 Dear Reader, if you receive these homilettes by email, you may find the service stopped in July.  As I understand an instruction from Google, its Burnfeeder program will no longer support the service.  You can always find the homilettes on the blog site: https://cbmdominicanpreacher.blogspot.com/ . Perhaps if you send me your email address, I could send the homilettes in a mass email.  You may send your email address to cmeleop@yahoo.com. When I ascertain that the service is no longer functioning, I will start sending them to you personally.

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, June 27, 2021

(Wisdom 1:13-15.2: 23-24; II Corinthians 8:7.9.13-15; Mark 5:21-43)

Almost every Wednesday people fill St. Peter's Square at ten in the morning. They come to see Pope Francis. They listen to his teaching and receive his blessing. Then they then try to take a selfie with him.  If they can get close to him, they try to touch his hand. We can think of people acting something like this with Jesus at the beginning of today's gospel.

Jesus is drawing attention to himself. He talks about the long-awaited Kingdom of God and how it gradually appears like wheat sown in the field. Then Jairus, the head of the synagogue, comes to ask for a favor. His daughter is seriously ill; wouldn't Jesus come with him to touch her? Jairo has put his faith in Jesus like the many women fighting abortion today. Just as Jairo wants his daughter to live, so these women recognize in hidden fetuses images of God that are worth saving.

On the way to Jairo's house, Jesus meets another person who puts his faith in him. A woman with hemorrhages believes that Jesus’ mere touch will heal her condition. However, she does not expect Jesus to touch her.  Rather than that, she looks for an opportunity to touch him. When it comes, she seizes it and, in fact, experiences healing. No longer will she remain hidden in the crowd.  When Jesus asks who touched him, she tells what happened. The Letter of James says that faith without works is dead. Here the woman does not fail to act on her faith. Another comparison can be made with women working to end abortion. They also act on faith, in their case to save babies lives.

Unfortunately, the women who ask pregnant mothers to give birth to their children are not always successful. Perhaps in nine out of ten cases the women’s hearts are found so distorted that they continue to procure an abortion. The valiant women trying to save babies have to believe that God will provide them with eternal life. It is one of the greatest tests of our Christian faith: to believe that God will raise the dead to eternal life. As Jesus takes the hand of the girl in the gospel to raise her from the sleep of death, on the last day he will raise those who have been faithful to him.

The first reading says that death did not originate with God but with the devil. We can expand this concept by saying that the culture of death originated with the devil. He tempted Eve and Adam with the promise of making them like gods. The result was death for them and for the rest of humanity. Today the devil tempts people with pleasure.  The results are millions of abortions, suicides, and wasted lives. Pope Saint John Paul II asked that we transform the culture of death into one of life. Our efforts will consist not only of campaigns against abortion but also of new ways of living.

First and foremost, like Jairus, we will live looking for Jesus. We will find him and really touch him in the Eucharist. With his support we can live valuing every human being from conception. As the girl receives the hand of Jesus, we will take the hands of all kinds of people in friendship. Finally, like the woman with hemorrhages, we will act on behalf of life. We will speak the truth about the culture of death and how it is for us to transform it into one of life. It is up to us to form a culture of life.