The Power of Faith

The point of convergence between the readings is the power of faith. In the Gospel, the doctors’ inability to cure the woman with a hemorrhage is countered by the healing force of her faith in Jesus; the power of death that has imposed itself on the life of Jairus’ daughter is countered by the greater power of Christ to restore her to life by virtue of her faith. These two examples in the Gospel emphasize that God (and Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God) did not create death, but that he is the Lord of life (first reading), and thus has power over death itself. The force of faith and the power of God become manifest in the life of Christians; indeed, thanks to the power of faith they are able to overcome ethnic and cultural barriers, and express their fraternal charity to the brothers of Judea by means of the collection of money (second reading).

DOCTRINAL MESSAGES

The power of death is universal. It is a disconcerting power, which causes concern, anguish. It is a great question nailed in the heart of history. Does God want man’s death? Does death have the last say? Is there any sense to death? Today’s liturgy provides us with a sketch of an answer. 1) Death, perceived not as a transition from a state of life to another state, but as the loss of the relationship with the source of life, God, as a thief that violently wrenches us away from the treasure of life, does not have God at its origin, but has entered the world through the devil’s envy. The burden of anguish, desperation and nihilism that death carries on its shoulders comes from the enemy of God and man, the enemy of life, the devil. 2) Man was created in the likeness of God, the Lord of life; this is why man was created for life, not for death; he was made immortal, like God himself. 3) The power of life over sickness and death finds two examples in the power of faith expressed both by the woman with a hemorrhage and Jairus.

The Gospel presents a very great contrast between human powerlessness before sickness and death, on the one hand, and the striking force of faith on the other. The woman with a hemorrhage was sick for twelve years, she was sterile, which was a terrible ailment for a woman living in Jesus’ time. She had resorted to all human means, but all of them had been a failure. Not only did she not improve, but she actually got worse. In her tragic situation, the woman was desperate. Human powerlessness is manifested here. The only attitude in the face of such powerlessness is faith. What man cannot do, with all of his means, may be achieved by the power of faith. With this belief, she approaches Jesus, touches him with her hand and her faith, and she is cured. The same happens to Jairus. His daughter has died. There is no remedy any longer: death has overcome. Being able to come back to life is not a part of human experience. But faith is stronger than death. This is why Jesus says to Jairus, "Do not be afraid; only have faith." And with his faith, Jairus gave life to his daughter for the second time. What magnificent examples of the power of faith!

The second reading talks to us about the collection of money organized by Paul in some of the communities he founded in favor of the needy brothers of Judea. The collection shows the power of faith. Paul and the Christians, coming from the Greek and Roman world, must overcome very powerful racial prejudices; they must overcome a certain anti-Semitism which already existed in Hellenistic culture; they must especially overcome cultural obstacles: the closed mentality of the Christians of Judea, the idea the everyone has to be like them (be circumcised, not eat impure foods, observe the Jewish calendar of festivities…) if they wish to be true Christians. The power of faith in Christ the Lord imposes itself on all of these aspects, and moves the Christian Gentiles to an extraordinary gesture of charity, for we are all brothers in Christ, and we must help one another.

PASTORAL SUGGESTIONS

Certainly, we need faith in Jesus Christ and in the truths that he proposes for us to believe in. But faith is also confidence in and abandonment to the power of Jesus Christ. Let us not think that the power of faith belongs to the past, to dark times in which faith, superstition and irrationality traveled along the same path and were intertwined. The power of faith is not confined in terms of space or time; nor is it confined by the body or soul. The power of faith is total. Today there are still miracles, and frequent miracles, in people who with an immense faith ask God, with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin or of some saint, the healing of the body or soul. If we count the miracles that each year are recognized by the Congregation for Saints, they add up to several dozens.

Then there are the thousands of small miracles that no-one knows about except for those concerned, but which these people know are the work of the power of God. And if faith is so powerful, why do we men have such little faith on many occasions? What fears does our spirit harbor, which prevent this gigantic faith capable of making the miracle flourish in the desert of an excessively rational world?

Faith works through charity, Saint Paul tells us. Faith creates solidarity. Providentially, in the collective conscience of our time, there is a greater sensitivity to the needs of our Christian brothers and of all men. In this Jubilee Year, we welcome the growing movement of international solidarity among Christians in governments and parliaments, to partly or totally cancel the external debt of poorer countries, especially in Africa and Latin America. We welcome international solidarity in the face of the natural calamities affecting our own countries and other nations of the world. We welcome international solidarity among different Christian communities, among bishops’ conferences, among different dioceses. We welcome international solidarity among Christians themselves, so that the distance between rich and poor may progressively decrease. Much is already being done in the area of solidarity, enlightened by faith. There is much more to do. What can I do? What can my parish, my diocese do?

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Pope Francis
Homilies

Jesus Frees Two People

27 June 2021 | Saint Peter’s Square

In the Gospel today (cf. Mk 5:21-43) Jesus encounters our two most dramatic situations, death and disease. He frees two people from them: a little girl, who dies just as her father has gone to ask Jesus’ help; and a woman, who has had blood loss for many years. Jesus lets himself be touched by our suffering and our death, and he works two signs of healing to tell us that neither suffering nor death have the last word. He tells us that death is not the end. He defeats this enemy, from which alone we cannot free ourselves.

However, in this period in which illness is still at the centre of the news, let us focus on the other sign, the healing of the woman. More than her health, her affections were compromised. Why? She had blood loss and therefore, according to the mindset of the time, she was deemed impure. She was a marginalized woman; she could not have stable relationships; she could not have a husband; she could not have a family, and could not have normal social relationships, because she was “impure”, an illness that made her “impure”. She lived alone, with a wounded heart. What is the greatest illness of life? Cancer? Tuberculosis? The pandemic? No. The greatest illness of life is a lack of love; it is not being able to love. This poor woman was sick, yes, with blood loss, but as a result of lack of love, because she could not be with others socially. And the healing that counts the most is that of affections. But how do we find it? We can think of our affections: are they sick or are they in good health? Are they infirm? Jesus is able to heal them.

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Restoring Life and Faith

1 July 2018 | Saint Peter’s Square

This Sunday’s Gospel passage (cf. Mk 5:21-43) presents two miracles performed by Jesus, almost describing them as a type of triumphal march toward life. Initially the Evangelist speaks about a certain Jairus, one of the rulers of the Synagogue, who approaches Jesus and beseeches Him to go to his home because his 12-year-old daughter is dying. Jesus agrees and goes with him; but, along the way, word arrives that the girl is dead. We can imagine that father’s reaction. But Jesus says to him: “Do not fear, only believe” (36). When they arrive at Jairus’ house, Jesus sends out the people who were weeping — there were also women mourners who were wailing loudly — and He enters the room with just the parents and the three disciples, and speaking to the dead girl He says: “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (v. 41). And immediately the girl gets up, as if waking from a deep sleep (cf. v. 42).

Within the narrative of this miracle, Mark adds another: the healing of a woman who suffers from a haemorrhage and is healed as soon as she touches Jesus’ garment (cf. v. 27). Here what is striking is the fact that this woman’s faith attracts — to me the word “robs” comes to mind — the divine saving power that is in Christ, who, feeling that “power had gone forth from him”, tried to understand who it was. And when the woman, with much shame, comes forward and confesses the whole truth, He tells her: “Daughter, your faith has made you well” (v. 34).

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