Fear vs Faith

13th week in ordinary time Year B

Good Morning, Today is the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

This week we continue the message of Faith.

Last week, Jesus tells his apostles, A group mainly made up of men of the sea, Let us crossover to the other side. A simple request that should have been well in the wheelhouse of the Apostles. But we heard of the fear that these men had doing something they knew so well it should have been second nature to them. This week!

The First Reading reminds us: Death was not God's plan; he takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living ... it was our cooperation with the devil's envy that brought death into the world ...

As I have shared before I served as a hospital and hospice chaplain, during my formation. Almost every day I saw people struggling to come to terms with the suffering and death of a loved one, or with their own impending death. A common question, almost as an accusation, at this time is 'Why is God doing this to me?'

My simple response was always 'God is not doing this' they usually wouldn't say anything else at the time. Mostly they didn't but sometimes, hours or days later, some would ask 'What did you mean, when you said "God did not do this?"'

Our Catholic faith presents us with a very clear picture of God's loving creation and his concern for us all. At the very beginning it is clear he made us to be imperishable, as the Book of Wisdom affirmed just now. Death was never God's plan for us, and neither was its partner, suffering. Both suffering and death have entered the world because mankind, through the temptation of the devil, turned away from God. This turning away has dire consequences.

To understand this we need to remember that when we turn away from God we turn away from everything good – love, wholeness, innocence, light, life - and we find instead: fear, brokenness, guilt, darkness, suffering and death.

Satan tempted man and we fell for his lie and one of the worst consequences of this falling is that from that moment on we find it difficult to take responsibility for our sin. So we blame everyone except ourselves - the woman made me do it - the serpent made me do it.

Even today we hide from the truth about suffering and death and blame God for it all. At the least we accuse him of failing us because he doesn't just simply take it all away, make it all better, fix it! which, of course, is precisely what he has done, which wonderfully satisfies both mercy and justice.

What God did was to send his own Son, Jesus, to take upon himself the very scourge we brought into the world through our sin. He took upon himself suffering and death and made them a path to eternal life for those who follow his steps. In other words, the very suffering and death which led to our ultimate destruction now leads to eternal life - but we have to believe!

Suffering and death still come to us in this life but now, hand in hand with Jesus, they lead us to the resurrection and heavenly light. The Scriptures and the saints teach us this lesson over and over again, telling us to walk the painful journey of life in the footsteps of our loving Master, carrying the cross of our sufferings in faith, and we will find ourselves sanctified and blessed, already here on this earth, and in the world to come.

That's why people flocked to Jesus. Their deafness, paralysis, demon possession, and illness were the sufferings which caused them to come to the one who alone could give health and life. As he took these away, he taught them there was a disease greater than those of the body, it is SIN, and a health and a life greater than the one they were seeking ETERNITY.

This is what makes sense of that mysterious question of Jesus to the disciples in the sinking boat last week - 'Why are you so frightened?'

We can imagine the disciples responding 'Why are we so frightened? What do you mean? The boat was filling up with water, it was going down, we were going to die! WE WERE GOING TO DIE!' And then Jesus mysteriously, challenged, 'So, why are you so frightened?'

In our own lives the question repeats itself over and over. But, Lord, I have cancer! So, why are you so frightened? But, Lord, I have heart disease! So, why are you so frightened? Lord, we are out of money, my husband lost his job, my wife had an accident, I am pregnant again .... THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO BE DESTROYED! So, why are you so frightened?

This is the question which brings us to the outer limits of our faith in God. In the face of the problems and uncertainties of my life, in the face of the problems and uncertainties confronting the world - why am I so frightened? Do I believe or not?

This brings us to this week’s odd question, Who touched me?

“Who touched me?” A question the disciples found startling, perhaps even silly with all the people crowding around him. And surely it wasn’t the first time he had been in a jostling crowd that made it difficult for him to move or preach or heal. To heal – that’s what it was really all about. It was about the healing touch of Jesus – and, it was about faith, the faith of Jairus who came forward and threw himself at the feet of Jesus, and the faith of the woman who was no less bold in touching him, an act that was forbidden to her in her condition, to say nothing of the custom prohibiting a woman from approaching a man she did not know. But that fact that so many people were so close to Jesus and I am sure that others had touched him, but it was this woman who touched with faith that caused Jesus to stop and ask Who touched me?

The Gospel tells us that, Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. But Jesus stops and asked, Who Touched me? We hear that he felt power escape him, he was not looking to restore that power but to know who touched him, with a great faith. The woman aware that she could continue to remain unnoticed or admit that she had been the one that touched him. She, realized what had happened to her, approaching in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. Sensing her faith and fear of the Lord. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”

The woman had this affliction for 12 years, and had spent all she had, approaches Jesus with the one thing she had left. Her faith, she had faith that if she only needed to touch of the Cloak of Jesus and that would save her. And It did. But she also had faith that when pressed with admitting the deed her faith would allow her to keep the cure given to her. Many of us have faith, and you see played out in prayer or the participation of the sacraments. But when pressed to openly commit to the faith we have are we so open as this woman?

Those that have been listening to Fr Mike’s Bible in a year know about the word Immediately - Saint Matthew used it twelve times, Luke fourteen times, and John only six times. Mark however, used the word twenty-eight times, and his is the shortest Gospel, only sixteen chapters.

Jesus invites us to a faith which transcends present suffering and future death. He invites us to the peace and joy of total faith in a future which is in his loving hands. No matter what we may suffer, even death, he invites us, not to fear, but to rejoice because our names are written in the book of life in heaven (Luke 10:20).

And remember that every single person has a name a face and a story that is precious to God so, in turn, it should be precious to us.