Do Not Fear; Only Believe

Thirteenth Sunday in Course 2024

In his great Summa Theologiae, St Thomas Aquinas wrote “the order of the Divine government is wholly directed to good. . .no one acts intending evil.” (ST I Q 104 Art 1) Those words are an appropriate commentary on the words from the post-exile writing Book of Wisdom, “[God] created all things that they might exist, and the generative forces of the world are good.” Thirteenth Sunday in Course 2024

In his great Summa Theologiae, St Thomas Aquinas wrote “the order of the Divine government is wholly directed to good. . .no one acts intending evil.” (ST I Q 104 Art 1) Those words are an appropriate commentary on the words from the post-exile writing Book of Wisdom, “[God] created all things that they might exist, and the generative forces of the world are good.” God made man and woman in His image, with the plan that they would act and become more and more good, more and more like Himself. That was the divine order. But out of jealousy, the devil, the divider, tempted the man and woman and brought disorder and death into their lives.

Our psalm today, however, looks forward to the recovery of God’s plan to bring us into eternal union, eternal life, with and in Christ, through His atoning death and revivifying Resurrection. There is even a preview of the Great Sabbath, right after Good Friday, when the disciples wept during the night, but recovered their joy the next morning, the first Easter, when they saw Jesus risen from death.

As Paul writes, Christ was rich beyond all imagining, the very begotten Son of the Father, yet he made Himself poor by becoming human, and, even further, emptying Himself of all His power and glory during His torture and execution. And by faith and sacrament we then become adopted children of God, taken up into the Divine Family, and out of our poverty He raises us up to be coheirs with Christ of the Kingdom. We, in our own eternal Resurrection, will ourselves become rich beyond all imagining.

In writing these words to the Corinthians, Paul is using the words “poor” and “rich” to subtly coax the people of Corinth to take up a collection for the support of congregations who for one reason or another needed operating funds. In doing so, Paul even appeals to the Book of Exodus, where the divine power had made certain that when the manna fell in the desert, and the people of Israel collected it every day, each family had enough to eat, and nobody lived in luxury.

Mark’s Gospel provides us today with a precious set of miracles, events that show Jesus emptying Himself of human glory to raise up two women from a miserable state. The first one is a woman who had been shunned by everyone. Blood was a sacred thing, but it also was a polluting thing that could exclude a man or woman from society, even the synagogue. And this woman would not stop bleeding, so she was kept from human association. All she did was touch the hem of Christ’s garment. And she was instantly healed. Jesus also felt the touch of His own power, and made her admit her action and her restoration.

But almost at once, what Jesus had set out to do was brought back into sight. The little girl, twelve years of age, the focus of Christ’s attention a little earlier, was reported to be dead. Her father, leader of the local synagogue, was devastated, but Jesus would have nothing to do with the report. He had told the woman a moment earlier that her faith in Christ had provided the conduit by which healing power could be effective. Now it was the synagogue chief’s turn: “Do not fear; only believe.” Open the faith conduit to your heart.

Now Jesus took over, master of the chaos that surrounded the ruler’s house. He chased away the mourners with their noisemakers, and took with him to the girl’s room only Peter, James and John, His trusted three leaders. He ignored the mourners who had mocked Him for saying the girl was only asleep. With the father and mother, Jesus approached the girl, lifted her hand, and bid her arise. She did, and probably wondered what all the fuss was about. A Messianic miracle for the synagogue leader’s family. But Jesus didn’t want fame or glory, no. He instructed the five witnesses that they should tell nothing other than there was a misdiagnosis. The girl was, in fact, only asleep, and now she is well.

All of us have problems, some as serious as the woman with the hemorrhage, or even the family with a dying child. Others less troubling. God wants only good for us. God is good all the time. So Christ bids us trust Him, seek help from those who can do something, but not fear, only believe. May He be blest for all He has done, is doing, and will do through that faith and His divine power. Amen.