Tuesday word, 30 Jan 2007

Tuesday, 4th Week of the Year (30 Jan 2007) Hb 12. 1-4; Ps 22; Mk 5. 21-43
Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.
The Whole Package

Recall the earlier Marcan passage in which Jesus saw the faith of the friends of a paralyzed man? Jesus said to the man, “Your sins are forgiven.” That caused lots of angry puzzlement.

Imagine you are a disciple touring with Jesus when Jairus begs him to cure his daughter. Now what will Jesus do? Wondering that on the way, the woman suffering from hemorrhages appears. Notice what Jesus told her: “Daughter, your faith has saved you.” When people report the little girl was dead, Jesus told Jairus, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”

No longer did Jesus alone see another’s faith. Jesus explicitly connected faith, which forgives, with himself and healing power. Jesus affirmed others’ faith and demonstrated its healing power. Many refused to accept this “whole package,” to use a contemporary, American phrase.

Yet a great cloud of witnesses has accepted the whole package of faith in Jesus. They pray for us to accept Jesus and his faith more whole-heartedly. Jesus perfects our faith with his own. Jesus endured to the point of shedding his blood so that we might endure in lesser ways.
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The Apotheosis of the Slavs, 1926.
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