If I touch the fringe of His garment, I will be healed

Wis. 1:13-15.2:23-24, 2 Cor. 8:7.9.13-15, Mk 5:21-43. On this Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B, the Church invites us to appreciate God, who generously gave us life as gif. Today's first reading made it clear that God made all things that they may have life and all creatures are created to be wholesome. As a loving Father, the plan of God for us remains supreme. It is not a plan of death, but life eternal. In the second reading, Paul reminds us that God has generously given us everything. Hence, Paul educates us on the principle of generosity and enjoins us to balance the need of others against our surplus. Giving what does not cost us “anything” might not give us the satisfaction of generosity (2 Sam 24:24). Real generosity attracts God’s blessings and favours to those who give freely and cheerfully. The miracle stories of today's Gospel show the generosity of Jesus in His healing ministry: the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead and the healing of the woman suffering from haemorrhage. In each of these miracles, we see the face of humanity collectively and individually plagued by one problem or the other. It can never be overemphasised that as our faces are different so also are our problems and challenges and pains.

One central message we must take from today’s Gospel narrative is the fact that God remains the only true and sure source of the solution to all of our problems, challenges, difficulties, pains and sufferings. From Jairus and this woman, we are invited to learn to bring our problems to God in humility, even when they seem most impossible because “with man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God” (Mk 10:27). Today, we are challenged not to allow any life- threatening situation or the blow of death in our family or community to lead us to despair. Rather, let us reaffirm our faith that God, the giver of life, has created us to live forever; and that, in Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life, death is no longer our end, but the sleep of ‘spiritual operation’ during which He heals our souls for everlasting life in Heaven. There are some moments in life when the situations around us and the conditions of life leave us in a state of desolation and despair and with experiences of severe physical pain and the lost of parts of the things that constitute our hope and aspirations. In such dark moments of life, God is always there with us.

May the Lord's presence always bring to us an eradication of our sources of pain and grief! Amen!! Good morning and happy Sunday!!!