Breaking the Word

4^th Week in Ord. Time, Tuesday – 31^st January 2023 — Gospel: Mark 5,21-43

No faith is put to shame

The healing story is sandwiched between the beginning and ending of the raising story. The healing of the woman in the middle appears to have two basic functions: it creates a time lapse which accentuates the actual death of Jairus’ daughter; and it presents the reversal of a woman’s death-ridden life in anticipation of the raising of a young girl from death to life. The woman exhibits ‘active’ belief with ‘a movement of the will’ which presses her towards Jesus. The woman’s thought functions as a request which Jesus grants. Jesus’ direct knowledge of her thoughts, His assertion of her faith, and the woman’s action establishes a ‘rule’ for the early church that no faith is put to shame and destroyed, and her confidence brings kindness and healing.  As the positive qualities of Jesus unfold, so the positive qualities of the woman unfold. She exhibited not only her faith but also her fear, trembling, respect and honesty. The women orientates all her activities toward Jesus, and Jesus interprets her emotions, knowledge, and action as she crosses the boundary from the world of physicians to the sphere of Jesus’ healing power.

Week 4 of Ordinary Time, Monday – 30^th January 2023 — Gospel: Mark 5,1-20

Transformed Witness

Let us look at the different responses in this passage. The unclean spirits knew who Jesus was and the power that he possessed. They only asked him to cast them into the herd of swine.  The people who witnessed the miracle saw his power. They chose the path of fear and they begged him to leave their district. On the contrary, the Gerasene demoniac was different in his response. Jesus’ mercy and his saving power had set him free from the bondage of evil spirits. And so the man sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to him. To express his gratitude he wanted to follow Jesus. He became a madman for Christ. The cured man is overwhelmed by the transformation. He gives no thought to going back to ‘ordinary’ life. His thankfulness makes him accompany Jesus, his friend and Saviour. However, Jesus gives him a new mission, sending him to his family and friends. He has to tell them the story of how Jesus cured him and make God’s glory known to them. This lost Gentile, in making known the glory of Jesus, the living faith to others, becomes an icon of universal salvation. He learnt to obey Jesus in faith that he walked for about two hours to Decapolis proclaiming what Jesus had done for him.