Message of Abbot Paul - Sunday 27th June
Message from Fr Paul for Sunday, 27th June 2021
We’re well into the second half of the year now and the days are clearly drawing in. You can’t help but remember that Christmas is only six months’ away. It’s strange, but with the recent rains, in Herefordshire at least, it already begins to smell and look like early Autumn. I don’t think I’m exaggerating. What Toby likes best of all are the tall grasses in the old part of the cemetery and on our playing field. One of his favourite games is to hide the ball, so that I have to find it. Even with a football it’s hard enough, but with a tennis ball, it’s well nigh impossible. He guides me by pointing in the right direction with his nose, but then cleverly hides himself and the game becomes one of find the dog! There’s never a dull moment with Toby: he’s seen me through lockdown, I can assure you.
Today’s Gospel is one of the most exquisite pages in Mark, (Mk 5: 21-43), two miracle stories beautifully composed, intercalated and related. Jesus and his world come to life. Read it through and see for yourself.
“When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lakeside. Then one of the synagogue officials came up, Jairus by name, and seeing him, fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to make her better and save her life.’ Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him.
Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his cloak. ‘If I can touch even his clothes,’ she had told herself ‘I shall be well again.’ And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. Immediately aware that power had gone out from him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing round you and yet you say, “Who touched me?”’ But he continued to look all round to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. ‘My daughter,’ he said ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.’
While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official to say, ‘Your daughter is dead: why put the Master to any further trouble?’ But Jesus had overheard this remark of theirs and he said to the official, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’ And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. So they came to the official’s house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, ‘Talitha, kum!’ which means, ‘Little girl, I tell you to get up.’ The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At this they were overcome with astonishment, and he ordered them strictly not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.”
What strikes us first of all is the amount of detail Mark has packed into each line. Jesus comes over as kind, gentle, thoughtful and polite, someone who also thinks about practical things. I love the way the account ends with Jesus telling the little girl’s parents to give her something to eat. They were so overcome with astonishment that they didn’t know what to do next. The fact that Jairus was a synagogue official shows us that not all religious leaders were opposed to Jesus. Whereas he is named, the woman with the haemorrhage remains anonymous, like most of those healed by Jesus in the Gospels. This unnamed woman spoke and these words provide insight into her thinking and theological perspective. Not only touching him but touching even his clothes may provide healing from diseases. This theological rationale was confirmed by her healing. Just as the woman understood the changes in her body, so Jesus recognized a change in his body. The woman was looking to be healed and healed she was. But speaking the truth to Jesus, when questioned, brought her more than healing. Truth’s reward is forgiveness. Jesus challenged Jairus to hold on to his faith, “only believe”, a faith that led him to the healer in the first place. Jesus then reduced the number of potential witnesses to three, Peter, James, and John, an inner group who would also receive other special revelations at the Transfiguration and in Gethsemane. This reduction of witnesses would continue after the tearful gathering at Jairus’ home ridiculed Jesus’ assessment of the situation. Unlike earlier healing accounts, Jesus speaks Aramaic here: talitha kum. Because of his audience, Mark translates the words, while the other Gospels omit the foreign words altogether. A Greek speaking audience, Jewish or not, might think that the strange words are part of some healing formula; Mark’s translation tried to offset this idea. There is so much more one could say, but here I must stop.
A final word, though – what do these miracles mean for us? What should or could we do as a result of reading and studying them? Jesus’ life, death and resurrection grant life-changing healing and forgiveness to those who believe. It is a healing authority that crosses boundaries, both ethnic and gender ones. Jesus chooses not to leave people in the condition in which he finds them and he has the power to alter that condition. Do we? Can the Christian community alter the conditions of people’s lives? Can it, too, bring healing into troubled circumstances? Must it not also cross boundaries — whether they are related to ethnicity, gender, race, sexual orientation, politics or any other boundaries that divide our society — and advocate life-giving meaning and change? May God grant us the courage to do so, for Jesus promised his disciples power to do even greater things than he did himself. The Gospel, the Church, Christianity should make the world a much better place for all its peoples without exception, as well as prepare them for the life to come.
