13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B): Mk 5:21-43 06.30.24

“God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living”. God did not make death nor evil, but they are all too present in our daily lives. To the point that many people state that they do not believe in God because death and evil are so present in our world.

Jesus was certainly aware of this fact and that is why he insisted so much in healing and
resuscitating people in the Gospels. When Jesus performed a miracle, the people witnessing it were aware that Jesus was not simply a thaumaturge, a miracle-worker. They knew that Jesus was contradicting that apparently insurmountable law of human life - that nothing can be stronger than evil and death. 

When Jesus healed a person, it was evident that he was also forgiving that person, strengthening his/ her faith and reaffirming the imminence of God’s law of love and life.
That is clear in the two stories we have just heard. The hemorrhage that woman suffered for so many years was certainly seen by the people as a punishment for her sins. And the death of Jairus’ young daughter was probably regarded the same way. When Jesus healed the former and resurrected the latter, he was proclaiming that God’s justice is imperishable, that love is stronger than death and that our faith can save our lives.

But even more than that, Jesus was teaching us that we, too, have this same power. We, too, can convey life and goodness, in a transformative way, for all those around us. How? Forgiving those who offended us. Each one of us brings the marks of death and evil imprinted by others in our lives. We all have witnessed and lived difficult – and sometimes, even horrible – moments in our lives. But death and evil should not have the last word. 

Forgiveness is a true miracle – and that is why it is so demanding, difficult and consuming. Forgiveness contradicts the apparently omnipresent law of evil and death in the world. I
am not saying that we should simply ignore and “forget” the evil done against us – that is not forgiveness. Forgiveness is a process which demands truth, sincerity and patience – much patience. But it works. The price of our forgiveness was Jesus’ crucifixion. The price of the forgiveness we grant to those that offended us is Jesus’ and our crucifixion. It cannot be easy. But it transforms our lives.

Forgiveness is a miracle because it transforms the one who grants it and the one who receives it. The one granting it experiences the peace and relief of unloading a huge burden – of anger, resentment and guilt. The one being forgiven experiences a huge blessing: he knows that such grace can only come from God and he experiences love, freedom and the release of all shame. That is why Saint Isaac, the Syrian, said that “he who forgives his neighbor is greater than he who resuscitates a corpse. Because he who resuscitates a corpse conveys the corporal life to someone who will die again, while he who forgives
his neighbor conveys the immortal life to his brother’s soul”. This is a huge miracle and we all received the power, by our Baptism, to do it.

I know it is not easy. It was not easy for Jesus. As I said, Jesus’ love and holy life made him deserve death – and all the evil in the world. That is how we were forgiven. But we can take one step at a time, trying to acknowledge the evil that was made against us, talking about it with someone we trust and trying to wish good for those who hurt us. If we do not do that, we will continue to suffer under the burden of evil and death, with our hearts being torn by anger, resentment and pain. And that is not God’s loving will for us. He did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. He wants us to have life, and to have it more abundantly.  May this Eucharist renew in our hearts our miraculous power to grant forgiveness, goodness and life to all those in our lives.