Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
The theme of the scriptures for today is faith. Faith can sometimes have a negative connotation. Sometimes it can seem like a commitment to something that goes well beyond common sense. At other times, faith can even seem off-putting to others who do not share our commitments. Faith can even lead us to live in ways that other people find to be strange. As St Paul says, faith seems like foolishness to those who pride themselves on their wisdom (1 Corinthians 1: 27). For these and many other reasons it is difficult to live a life of faith.
The gospel for today tells the story of two different acts of healing that are carried out by Jesus. In the first miracle, a woman is healed when she comes up to Jesus in a crowd and touches his cloak. In the second, Jesus brings back to health a girl, the daughter of a synagogue official, who is considered to be dead. Jesus talks of a role for faith in both of these healings. Jesus tells the woman, “your faith has saved you” (Mark 5: 34). And before he heals the daughter of the synagogue official Jesus tells the official: “Do not be afraid; just have faith” (v. 36). In both of these accounts a person is healed because of the persistence of someone in their faith despite many obstacles and discouraging signs. Neither the woman nor the synagogue official turns to despair, but instead they persist in seeking out Jesus in order to achieve the healing that they seek.
What can we learn by reading these passages today? Above all it seems to me that the scriptures are telling us to have faith in the power of Jesus to change us. Too often faith is seen as a kind of intellectual assent to certain truths. But Jesus is teaching us that intellectual assent is not the totality of faith. Our faith is first and foremost a deep trust in the power of God. Without this trust we could not move towards God to receive healing.
It is not easy to have faith. It requires us to put our trust in a person who can seem distant at times. Yet in the first reading, the writer of Hebrews makes it clear that we have a role model to inspire us – namely Jesus. Jesus himself is an example of faith—of someone who did not become discouraged from doing good, even in the face of extraordinary hardships.
The scriptures for today can help inspire us to increase in our faith. Without faith we have little defense against the hardships of life. With faith, by contrast, we have the ability to face both the good and the bad that life has to bring us.
-Joel Schickel