When Jesus had crossed again in the boat
to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to
the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him
he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at
the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well
and live. He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon
him.
There was a woman afflicted with
hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many
doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew
worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and
touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”
Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was
healed of her affliction.
Jesus, aware at once that power had gone
out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my
clothes?” But his disciples said to Jesus, “You see how the crowd is pressing
upon you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ And he looked around to see who
had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear
and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said
to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your
affliction.”
While he was still speaking, people
from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died;
why trouble the teacher any longer? Disregarding the message that was reported,
Jesus said to the synagogue official “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He
did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the
brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he
caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.
So he went in and said to them, “Why this
commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And they ridiculed
him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s father and mother and
those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the
child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I
say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked
around. At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one
should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.
+ + + + + + +
Reflection:
Do you sometimes feel like your near
giving up on your faith in Jesus?
If faith is all that we have, we must hold
on to it and never ever let go of it for it will save us. It will cure us if
not physically it will certainly cure us spiritually and it will give us hope.
In the gospel we have two stories of faith:
Jairus whose daughter had died; he went to Jesus with faith. He begged Jesus to
go to his house and cure his dying daughter. There is also
the hemorrhaging woman she went up to Jesus and with great faith she touched
the end of His clothes.
Both Jairus and the sick woman got what
they wanted from Jesus because they both had faith. Indeed, faith is the secret
formula in having what we want from Jesus.
But how can we have faith when some if not
many of us don’t have a regular prayer life? How can we have faith when we
treat Jesus like a medicine that we only get in touch with when we are in dire
need of him? How can we have faith when we seldom attend Holy Mass? How can we
have faith when we rarely read the bible? How can we have faith when
we are so taken by social media the things of this world?
Therefore, detachment from this world and
attachment to Jesus is the key for us to have faith. Would we be willing to
slowly detach ourselves from this world and begin as well to attach ourselves
to Jesus? – Marino J. Dasmarinas