Three men wanted to kill time – to make
time stop. So they stood on top of a building and decided to throw their
watches down the street. Watch breaks, time stops, watch dies. The first man
threw his watch and it broke when it hit the bottom of the building. Time stops, watch dies. Then the
second man did the same thing, and it also broke.
The third man threw his watch
down the building, but ran down to pick it up. When he reached the two, they
find his watch still ticking, still alive, time has not stopped.
The other two men were very confused, so
they asked how that was possible. The third man told them, “Oh it wasn’t that
difficult. My watch is 10 minutes slow.”
Death
is when time stops. And yet God did not make death. God created us for life. When they came to the house of Jairus, Jesus
heard people weeping and wailing loudly. As Jesus enters, he tells them: Why do
you weep? The child is not dead she is only sleeping.”
Sometimes
we are too engrossed about dying that we forget about living. Sometimes we feel too depressed by the things
going on around us that we would rather wallow in our misery like zombies
preferring to live in the dark than to risk going out in the sunshine. It is
because that as we journey through life, we must realize that there will be ups
and downs.
When we are knocked down and we find ourselves broken, we need a
pick-me-up, or as the Italians might say, a “tirami-su” which means: pick
me up or lift me up. Remember, no
matter what way you are knocked down, Jesus is there to pick you up. You just
have to believe.
In
the gospel of today we see two females who were lifted up by Jesus. The first
was a little girl of twelve years of age. The other was a poor elderly woman who
has been suffering for twelve years. The first was the daughter of a rich
synagogue leader, Jairus. The second was a daughter of Jerusalem symbolizing
the poor and abandoned women. To the first Jesus says: “Talitha koum, little girl, daughter of Jairus, do not worry, I will
pick you up.” (Mark 5:41) To the second,
Jesus says: “Daughter, your faith has
made you well, I lift you up now, go in peace.” (Mark 5:34) The first
daughter rose from her death because of the faith of her father. The second
daughter rose from her sickness because of her faith in touching Jesus through
his garments. Neither expressed their wishes to Jesus directly, yet Jesus
lifted both up because he knew both had faith. Somehow both daughters believed
they could be healed.
Let
us have faith in the healing power of Jesus and allow Jesus to take us by the
hand when we need and help us up. Let us have faith in the power of Jesus to
reverse bad situations. Occasionally we are inspired when we meet sick or dying
people who suffer cruel pains but who lovingly reassures us that it will all be
made good in heaven. One lady who lost both feet through diabetes said
smilingly “Don’t worry, I’ll get a new
set of feet when I reach heaven.”
It
is not only sickness that can knock us down. We can be knocked down emotionally
and psychologically. We can be knocked down by the hurts others inflict on us
and by what they say or do to us. It is not always true to say that “Sticks and stones will break my bones but
words will never hurt me.” But the truth is, names, words, attitudes also
hurt. On those occasions we also need a pick-me-up and on those occasions Jesus
is also there to pick us up - Tiramisu!
Unfortunately,
though many times Jesus picks us up from our infirmities, we still doubt his
power and refuse to believe.
Once a man had to go shopping and, like
many men, he dreaded the experience and was never very patient about it. So
this particular time, when he got to the parking lot at the mall, it was
jammed. He drove around for five minutes looking for a spot, getting more and
more agitated. Finally, in desperation,
he looked up to heaven and said, “Lord, if you find me a parking place, I’ll go
to church every Sunday for the rest of the year.” Miraculously, a car then
pulled out right in front of him and a place opened up. The man looked quickly
back up to the sky and said, “Never mind, Lord, I found one.”
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 and trust in him.
Lane, T. (2013). “We have faith in the power of Jesus to heal us and
pick us up.” Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday of Year B. http://www.frtommylane.com/homilies/year_b/13.htm
“… your faith has saved you; go in peace and be healed”