Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

In today's Gospel reading we find Jesus healing two women. The first is healed because of her faith in Jesus through touching Him. The second is raised from the dead because of her father's faith in Jesus' ability to heal. One of the synagogue officials, desperate to save his daughter's life, turns to Jesus for help. The daughter is dead by the time they arrive, but Jesus raises her from the dead. It is Jesus Who has the power over life and death. This is because Jesus is God. But, as the church fathers were fond of saying, God became a human so that we might become gods. We do not really become "gods," but at our Baptism we do really receive the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. God comes to dwell within us. In the Eucharist we do really receive Jesus completely, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Again, God dwells within us. We are sanctified and elevated.

Jesus is the one mediator between God and humanity, but by virtue of Jesus' one mediation, and our sacramental incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church, we may participate in Jesus' one mediatorship. This is evidenced in today's first reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. In the previous chapter (11), the author of Hebrews spoke about all of these dead Old Testament saints in the faith. Precisely because of them, what in the opening verse today the Letter to the Hebrews calls "so great a cloud of witnesses," we may find encouragement and aid to continue to run the race set before us. This is the Communion of Saints. We participate in this Communion, since we represent the saints on earth, connecte in Christ to the Saints in heaven.

Let us then take the model of Jairus the synagogue official from today's Gospel reading, and intercede for one another, as Jairus interceded for his daughter. Let us approach Jesus to help bear one another's burdens. Let's not, however, neglect the Saints in heaven. The Saints can help us in our Christian journeys through life. Let's ask the Saints in heaven to intercede with us for one another before the heavenly throne of God.

Jeff Morrow