13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Death is to be understood deeper than the biological ending of life. The life we were created for is not mere biological, we were created for life in the likeness of God, that is, eternity and communion with the Father. Death is a fruit of sin and the envy of the devil. We die when we are cut off from the Lord and seek to live without God. Sin breaks that communion and when we are in sin, we do not give life but drain life. Today we are being helped to see the gravity and destruction sin brings into our lives.
When we sin, friends, we induce death. What is death? It is the emptiness and relentlessness that comes when we are without God, who is the true and fullness of life. Let us ask ourselves in reflection if there is life in us, if there is life in our thoughts, if there is life in our words and actions?
St. Paul teaches us the true meaning of our faith, of who we have become through baptism, we have become men and women for others, as Pedro Arrupe would say. We are a communion with God who on his richness has made us rich through self-emptying becoming poor for our sake. We learn the true meaning of being Church together, that is, journeying together so much that we truly are one in the One God.
In the healing of the woman who had the flow for twelve years we encounter the example of embracing Christianity. We should never be a crowd around Jesus but be a communion, always seeking oneness with Him and in Him. We have Christ Himself in the Holy Mass and he comes to us, let us receive Him. We should intend and believe as we encounter Christ in the Eucharistic celebration, in the Breaking of the Word, in the living of the Communion. Healing is in encountering Christ through faith. And to be able to do so Jesus stretches his hand as he raises us from the sleep of lack of faith, the death we heard of in the first reading. Today Jesus is saying Talitha koum to you and to me! Let us heed his voice and rise.
Be the Talitha koum of God to you children, family as you allow God to raise them through you. If we refuse to be the resurrection of our family, we are doomed to be their death.