THIRTEENTH
SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – JUNE 30, 2024
I
–By the envy of the devil, death entered the world.
R
–I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
II
– Your abundance should supply the needs of the poor.
A
– Our Savior Jesus Christ destroyed death and brought life to light through the
Gospel.
G –Little
girl, I say to you arise.
+ Our readings today are about
the matter of life and death! The first reading tells us how
death entered into the world of life that God had made. He made
in this world, man, to be imperishable
(unable to die): the image of his very own
nature. But by the envy of the devil
(an angelic spiritual creation who had already failed a test given by God)
– by his jealousy of God – death entered
the world as the fitting punishment for those who wantonly disobey God (as
he himself, the devil had done).
The object of this story then
is to stay on the side of God’s good
graces, on the side of right living, on the side of opposing
temptation when it comes at us, and it will come at us! We do this by
freely entering into a community of life
– among all of our brothers and sisters who are now a part of his family – and
even with those who are not yet members – to whom we constantly demonstrate our
faith by actions of love (so to make membership attractive and desirable): we
demonstrate our wiliness to help, by
helping (not making ourselves poor II) but by giving from a true abundance that we might have, so that the idea
of “more and less” is foreign to us as Christians; the idea of having what we need, and helping others who have need currently
is what life in communion / the Church is all about! There are a thousand ways
in which we can help beginning with prayer for others, but then our prayer must
always be followed by some kind of tangible activity.
Jesus in the gospel passage
went to help Jarius’ daughter because he had something that
he could do for her – and he did it: Jesus had/has power over life and death,
and so by simply calling her name and telling the little girl to get up: she
did! And she began to walk around. When we help others because Christ Jesus has
mandated us to do it, and out of love for him, some pretty amazing things can happen
too. For in a sense we too have power (Jesus’
power in us) to encourage people
to live healthier and happier lives, spiritual lives); we too have power (Jesus’ power in us) to heal those who have been wounded by the unkind mentally and
spiritually and even physically aggressive blows, remarks and experiences that
this cruel world can dole out – by simply listening, and encouraging them to believe that the Power of the Cross is
also the Power of the Resurrection: and that it is for them, and that
things can truly get better – with a little work, and a lot of being willing to
have stronger faith in God!
Let us not fail in our
Christian duty to be heralds of life, not death; and shiners of the light of
Christ into all the dark corners of the world – so
that the truth can be known everywhere, which can even draw true and old-time
persecution to ourselves, and the freedom of the children of God can become a
reality for all!
We
will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued us!
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