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OMELIE / Omelie EN

01 lug 2018
01/07/2018  13th Sunday of O. T. - B

01/07/2018  13th Sunday of O. T. - B

Reading 1, Wisdom 1,13-15; 2,23-24 * Psalm 29 * Reading 2, Second Corinthians 8,7.9.13-15 * Gospel, Mark 5,21-43

 

One of the questions frequently popping up in our mind is the one regarding the source of evil. Why on earth, if God is good, is there evil in the world?  Why on earth, if God is love, can I get sick? Why on earth, if God is our Father, do we all need to face death? These questions are sometimes expressed with humility, but sometimes, regrettably, even with pride or anger. Sometimes these questions cause someone to lose the faith, sometimes they cause someone to form a negative image of God, like He was an unfair Being, without love, a heartless master. The Book of Wisdom today begins to answer us. Our pain does not come from God, not even from death. God has created and has given men life, health and joy. He made us in His own likeness: He could not possibly have done anything better than he did! He has thought for us of immortality, making us able to achieve it: He has made us in a way that we can always talk to Him, making always communion possible. So then, what about death? What about sickness? And evil? "Death came into the world only through the Devil's envy, as those who belong to him find to their cost". It is not God who wants evil to happen; this is His enemy's will.

Our questions are still unanswered, though: how can we resist against the devil? He, being invisible, acts against us and we are not able to catch him and defeat him. Again, God does not leave us without an answer. And His answer is not made of words, but facts, as we all prefer!

The reply with which God wants to answer our doubts is Jesus! Please look at Jesus walking beside Jairus; look at Him while He tries to meet the eyes of the woman suffering from hemorrhages; listen to what He is saying to whoever complains and screams at Him. Jesus does not run when Jairus tells Him about the approaching death of his young daughter. The reality of the approaching death and the suffering of the parents that are about to be left alone without children are not scaring Him away. The suffering woman always near to death, made impure by her own sickness, does not confuse Jesus! He does not need to do anything for the woman: she just needs to touch the hem of his mantle, the hem that is the image of His obedience to the Father. Not only Jesus is God's answer to our questions, but He is also their solution. In front of Him and through His Word the sickness disappears and death retreats, giving back the life it has taken!

One thing we should notice, though. The woman needs to make the effort to win the resistance that is very strong in her: she needs to show in public her faith in Jesus! Instinctively she would not do it. Jesus is asking this effort of her in order for the sickness to be won once and for all, winning also over the fear of the crowd. And before erasing death from the house of the president of the synagogue, he needs to accept to be made fun of because of his faith, just like the Lord Himself is made fun of.

The world accepts the mastery of death over itself, this is why it is making fun of Jesus and whoever turns to Him with true faith. The world accepts the ruin coming from the devil, at the most it tries to find a compromise with him. Whoever loves God, instead, welcomes the «Answer» that He gives, His Son come to stay with us: he will need to bear other sufferings, amiably taking part in His, that are source of salvation for all men. The sufferings that the believer bears as believer do not make him sad, because they are not a temptation for him: they are instead a source  and an occasion for fortitude and steadfastness, they are an occasion for communion with all brethren that in the world are suffering because their faith is rejected by men!

Attention to these brethren is recommended to us today by the apostle Paul. The Corinthians, to whom he is writing, are wealthy enough: why then are they not thinking of the poverty, or even the misery, of other believers that are living in poorer areas? Surely they cannot stand their brethren in faith to die of starvation! Those who are suffering for their poverty have a live faith, strong, steadfast: they are always stretching their hands towards the Father with trust! If you, being able to do so, give them what they need to survive, their faith will make yours stronger: you will receive, thanks to the mysterious exchange of spiritual goods made possible by the same Holy Spirit, participation in the wealth of their faith and their closeness to God!

Let us go back to the Gospel: the woman began to suffer at the same time in which the little twelve-year-old girl, now dead, was born. This coincidence will remain a mystery for us as well. Bu the answer to all mysteries is again Jesus! When he arrives life enters us and peace, and communion! Hallelujah!