"A Christian isn’t a person who simply follows some commandments, but is a person who tries to think like Christ, act like him, love like him, Being a Christian means allowing Jesus to take possession of our lives and change them, transform them, free us from the darkness of evil and sin. Christians have an obligation to be visible, clear, brilliant signs of hope." Pope Francis
"Marriage is a spiritual reality. That is to say, a man and a woman come together for life, not just because they experience deep love for each other, but because they believe that God loves each of them with an infinite love and has called them to each other to be living witnesses of that love. To love is to embody God's infinite love in a faithful communion with another human being." (Henri Nouwen)
When Jesus gives us himself in the Eucharist, he seeks total communion with us. He gives his total self to us. For this union to reach its ultimate intimacy, we are to give our total self to him. We are to surrender all that is ours, all that we hold on to, all of our concerns to him. He is the Lord and we hold nothing back. This is what St. Theresa of Avila experienced one day in Eucharist. Only then is the union truly a communion. All He has is mine and all I have is his.
"Behold, I am doing something New" Is 43:19 Part I
What was the new thing God was doing in the midst of his people who were in exile?
Let us read the passage in context. 43:14-21.
The Chosen people of God are in exile because they had broken their covenant with God. God had sent numerous prophets proclaiming a call of repentance and return to the Lord their God, but the leaders and the people on the whole ignored the prophetic warnings. They trusted in those false prophets instead who tickled their ears, saying things they wanted to hear. They believed that since they were the Chosen people of God, that as long as they gave lip service to the law of the covenant they could live a double life. They looked back on their history and saw the many times God delivered them from their enemies. Why would he not do the same in their time and situation?
We know what happened. The prophetic word of God was fulfilled. Their enemies overwhelmed them after a long siege which devastated them almost to extinction. The remnant was brought to Babylon. Jeremiah the prophet was one of the ones who tried to warn the leaders. But they refused to listen. But after his prophetic word came true, he gave the exiles hope without them fully understanding. He said that their exile would last for 70 years.
During that time the word of God was still present to the people in exile. They were told to make the most of their situation; to remain faithful to the covenant and the laws of Moses.
The first part of the passage we read stresses that Yahweh will again redeem his people as he once did for their ancestors when they were slaves in Egypt. The Babylonians who were their present conquers will be overthrown. The point in fact is that the prophet is setting the stage for the divinely appointed mission of Cyrus, the Persian.. For it is he who would conquer Babylon and the fall of that city will usher in the opening act in the future drama of the Chosen people’s redemption again.
How does God assure them of this? He recalls for them the fact that it was He who made a way for the Israelites to cross through the Red Sea on dry soil; while at the same God destroyed the pursuing Egyptian charioteers who drowned when the waters returned to their normal level.
But it is not the past that the Lord wants them to reflect on or to live in. Remembrance of the past is only to help them to understand what God was about to do in the present moment for them because of his everlasting love. Just as mightily will God act on behalf of his people once again as he delivers them from Babylonian captivity and return them to the Promised Land. God is not the God of the past but of the present. What God did in a marvelous, miraculous way to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, he will do once more to redeem the Israelites in the present condition.
The present context is situated in the true identity of who God is. "Here is the words of Yahweh your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel....the Holy God, the creator of Israel, your King."(43:14, 15)
It is because who he is that he will redeem his people. As God made a way through the Red Sea which seemed impossible to the Israelites at the time with their backs to the sea and the Egyptians coming against them in battle array, so God will make a way for the present people through the desert back to Jerusalem. At the same time God will both protect and provide for them: protect them from their enemies and provide nourishment and drink during their journey.
As God prepared the people by proclaiming what he was about to do on their behalf because he was God, he also indicated what their response should be. Besides believing and acting on the word of God, they were to "proclaim his praises" both before and after it happens.
The passage that follows indicates that it was lack of true worship and sacrifice was the reason for the collapse of Israel and the resulting exile of the people. As the people are about to experience the redemptive mercy of Yahweh, they were freely to break into praise and glory before God as the Israelites did after their deliverance from Egypt.
What happened in fact was that God did fulfilled his prophetic word and did something new in the life of his people. But it went beyond their restoration and return to Jerusalem. For when they returned their hearts were disheartened because Jerusalem was in total ruin and the Temple burnt and destroyed. In prophecy God told the people that he was going to restore the beauty and life of Jerusalem and the Temple in such a way that the former glory would be nothing in comparison to the new glory. And so he did.
When the early Church Fathers reflected on this passage from Isaiah, they saw more than what actually happened. They also saw it to have a greater and fuller meaning. Ambrose saw it as applying to what God did in the Incarnation. Superceding the normal process of conception, doing what was beyond the imagination or expectation of human beings, God became Man in the person of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin.
Irenaeus interpreted this passage of God doing something new as a foreshadowing of the new covenant God will establish with his people: the new covenant established by Jesus at the Last Supper and on the Cross.
How are we to apply this passage to our present moment? First, we need to recall and respond with praise to the author of that Word: God, our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Our praise is not to be a mere lip service but an authentic offering of a heart and mind that stands continually in awe of God.
Secondly, we must recognize that the Word of God is timeless and though meant for the people who were the original recipients, the Word of God has a life beyond any particular point of history. So when we read that Jesus says, forgive or you will not be forgiven, those words were not meant only for his contemporaries but for us as well. When Jesus called for repentance, that is a call we must hear and respond to in our own lives on a daily basis.
Thirdly, we are called to be a people who is rooted firmly in the present moment in spite of the pull to look and long for the so-called glorious past or the pull to yearn for a future that is not yet. Yes, we are called to remember the past but not to idolize it nor allow shame and guilt to shackle us in the darkness of lost and despair. The past we are to remember is what God has done in spite of our sinfulness and failures. The future we are to keep before us is the prize on high won for us by Jesus through his death and resurrection. But it is neither in the past nor the future that we find life, only in the present moment in the presence of the living God who is doing something new now.
Fourthly, we are to perceive what is God is doing. This perception is a gift of the Holy Spirit who gives us all we need to correctly perceive the grace of God in our life in the present moment. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the gift of wisdom to enable us to perceive what is in the mind of God for us in the present moment. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the gift of knowledge to be able to have a clarity of what we perceive. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the gift of understanding to be able to draw the necessary conclusions of what we perceive and know. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the counsel and discernment to have certainty that we are following the will of God. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the courage and fortitude to be able act on this knowledge and understanding. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the desire to respond to the revelation of God with praise and thanksgiving. It is the Holy Spirit who brings us to a deeper awareness of the awesomeness of the God who reveal his plan to us.
Fifthly, we are to act on the new thing God is doing in the present moment in our life. It is in the present moment that we will hear God’s voice and see the move of his Spirit. We are to learn to be attentive to the present moment having studied and remembered the past. We are to open to the future direction of the Lord as we remain rooted in the present moment.
"The life of the Christian has three distinguishing aspects: deeds, words and thought. Thought comes first, then words, since our words express openly the interior conclusions of the mind. Finally, after thoughts and words, comes action, for our deeds carry out what the mid has conceived. So when one of these results in our acting or speaking or thinking, we must make sure that all our thoughts, words and deeds are controlled by the divine ideal, the revelation of Christ. For then our thoughts, words and deeds will not fall short of the nobility of their implications." St Gregory of Nyssa
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."
It is obvious the girl is dying and to Jairus Jesus is his last hope. He must have heard or seen the power of Jesus already. Do we sometimes wait until the last moment before calling upon Jesus?
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.
Mark often times interrupts one story and inserts another that is connected.
Her hemorrhage made her ritually unclean according to the belief of the Jewish people who followed the Law. That meant she could not go into the Temple without first be ritually washed.
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."
She too had "heard" about Jesus. In her unworthiness she sought just to touch his
garments
Even the act of touching Jesus’ garment would technically make Jesus ritually unclean.
It is not enough to be in the presence of Jesus or even to touch him. The faith of the woman made the difference.
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 him, "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."
Why did Jesus make a such a scene? Was it because he wanted the woman to publicly attest to the healing she had received from God? Do we give such a witness when Jesus moves in our lives? The healing was not for the woman only, but as will see, for the crowd but especially for Jairus.
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?"
Imagine that you were the father of the girl and received such a message, what would you feel at the moment?
Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid; just have faith."
In other words, recall the healing of the woman and have the same
faith.
Where and when has Jesus said the same thing to you?
He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
Why do you think Jesus did this? He is not looking for the approval of the crowd. He only wants to do the work of his Father.
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.
Here Mark contrasts the faith of the woman who was healed and the people pressing upon Jesus as well as the faith of Jairus against the lack of faith of the weeping crowd.
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.
It was not the faith of the child that brought the healing but the faith of the parents. What does this say to you?
How strong is your faith in the person and power of Jesus in times of difficulties?
What is God asking of you as you reflect on this passage?
"And give me, good Lord, a humble, lowly, quiet, peaceable, patient, charitable, kind, tender, and merciful mind, with all my works and all my words and all my thoughts to have a taste of your holy blessed Spirit. Give me, good Lord, a full faith, a firm hope, and a fervent charity; a love for you, good Lord, incomparably above the love of myself; and that I love nothing to your displeasure, but everything for the sake of you." Prayer of St. Thomas More
