13th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle B)
Readings:
Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
Psalm 30:2, 4-6, 11-13
2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15
Mark 5:21-43 or 21-24, 35-43
Abbreviations: NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), RSVCE (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name, YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments; therefore, we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Universal Catholic Catechism teaches that our Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: Victory over Death and the
Gift of Life
God created humans to be immortal and to live forever in
fellowship with the Divine Creator. God did not make death, as the First
Reading tells us. Death entered the world through the devil's envy and because
of Adam and Eve's sin of rebellion (Wis 1:13; 2:23-24). A consequence of our
original parents' fall from grace was that sin broke humankind's immortal tie
with God. The human soul remained immortal, but the loss of divine grace meant the
gates of Heaven were closed to humanity, and the curse of physical suffering
and death reigned until the coming of the Redeemer-Messiah. The promised Davidic
Messiah's mission was to break the power of sin and death over humanity and reopen
Heaven's gates (CCC 536, 1026).
In today's Responsorial Psalm, we sing in thanksgiving for the promise of the gift of our salvation: "I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me." God has declared victory over death and has "brought us up from the netherworld" of Sheol (abode of the dead), from "the pit" of death into which Jesus descended after His physical death to redeem those imprisoned there. In this context, the psalm reveals its prophetic meaning in proclaiming what God did when he raised Jesus after he tasted death and what He will do for us. Reciting this psalm, we should rejoice as disciples of the Lord as we acknowledge Jesus as our defender and Savior. Even if we suffer, either because of sin in the world or persecution in defending Christ, we have confidence that our Lord will not abandon us to the grave. Instead, our mourning will be turned into gladness when we enter the heavenly kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to live in perfect union with the Most Holy Trinity.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that Christians should give Christ Jesus thanks for His victory over death and His gift of renewed life in the Sacrament of Baptism. Christ's victory should cause us to reflect on our responsibility to love our neighbor as ourselves, which He identified as the second greatest commandment. We offer our thanks by imitating Him in our deeds of love and generosity to others when we resolve to share our resources with those in need. We do this to demonstrate obedience to Jesus's command and our gratitude for the sacrifice He made for us, resulting in the temporal and eternal blessings we receive.
In today's Gospel, we read about Christ's dominion over the forces of physical death as He called a little girl to arise from death and restored a woman to her community. The same Greek word Jesus used to command the child to "arise" from death also appears in Scripture to describe His Resurrection. The two stories in the Gospel reading emphasize Jesus's authority and power as God's supreme prophet and divine Messiah. The stories point to the promise that Jesus will restore everyone, body and soul, and raise them from death when He returns to call the dead to "arise" at His Second Advent (1 Thess 4:13-18). As Jesus told Martha of Bethany, "I AM the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die" (Jn 11:25-26).
The First Reading Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24 ~ God created
Man to be Immortal
13 God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the
destruction of the living. 14 For he fashioned all things that they might have
being, and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is not a
destructive drug among them, nor any domain of the netherworld on earth, 15 for
justice is undying. [...] 2:23 For God formed man to be imperishable; the image
of his own nature he made him. 24 But by the envy of the devil, death entered
the world and they who belong to his company experience it.
The inspired writer of the Book of Wisdom assures us that God did not make death (verse 13), nor did He create evil. Death is the absence of life in the same way that darkness is the absence of light, cold is the absence of heat, and evil is the absence of God. Evil does not exist unto itself. It is like darkness and cold; it is a word to describe the absence of its opposite. Evil is not like faith or love; these are the gifts of experiencing God. Evil is the result of what can happen when someone does not have God's love present in their heart or when an entity like Satan and his fallen angels stand in opposition to God. It is like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.
God is the author of life, and He created all life to be good and wholesome (see the seven-time repetition of the goodness of Creation in Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and finally in 31, where the pronouncement is that Creation is "very good"). God created human beings in the image of Himself, the One holy and just God (Gen 1:27), and it was God's plan for men and women to live forever in justice and immortality in fellowship with their Creator-God.
Physical death came about due to the devil's envy of humanity's unique place in God's Divine Plan (Wis 2:24). In Greek, "diabolos" (devil) means "accuser," and it is the usual translation given the Hebrew word "Satan." In his malice, Satan took the form of a serpent (Rev 12:9) and tempted our first parents into the sin of rebellion against the sovereignty of God in eating from the forbidden tree in the garden Sanctuary of Eden. Their sin resulted in separation from divine fellowship and forfeiting divine sonship in their loss of grace. Physical death became the symbol of spiritual death, which is the permanent separation from communion with God. Their sin became the shared sin of all their descendants as human beings were fathered imperfectly in a state of sin inherited by their offspring from that time forward. The Church calls this condition "original sin" (CCC 400-1, 409, 399).
St. John told us that Jesus came to undo the work of Satan, to remove humanity from the power of sin and death, to restore divine sonship and communion in the image and likeness of God the Father, lost in the fall of Adam. St. John wrote, Whoever sins belongs to the devil because the devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:8-9). In destroying the "works of the devil," Christ has returned humanity to the original state of divine grace and the promise of eternal life.
Responsorial Psalm 30:2, 4-5, 10-13 ~ Eternal Gratitude
Response: "I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me."
2 I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear and did
not let my enemies rejoice over me. [...] 4 O LORD, you brought me up from
the netherworld [Sheol], you preserved me from among those going down into the
pit.
Response:
5 Sing praise to the LORD, you, his faithful ones, and
give thanks to his holy name. 6 For his anger lasts but a moment; a lifetime,
his good will. At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing.
Response:
11 Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me; O LORD, be my
helper. 12 You changed my mourning into dancing; 13 O LORD, my God, forever
will I give you thanks.
Response:
The title of Psalm 30 reads: "A psalm. A song for the dedication of the Temple. Of David." It is a classic example of a Toda Psalm (the Hebrew word toda means "thanksgiving"). Modern Biblical scholars classify it as a psalm of narrative or declarative praise. This type of psalm typically reflects a situation in which the psalmist has passed through a dark period of crisis and is now thankful to find refuge and salvation in the Lord. The psalmist credits the Lord God for his salvation and joyfully praises God for his deliverance.
In verse 2, the psalmist gives God credit for delivering him from the power of his enemies. In verse 4, he thanks God for saving him from the destination of the dead, which he refers to as Sheol in Hebrew (Hades in Greek). Sheol is called the "grave" or "netherworld" and "abode of the dead," but also "the pit" (as in verse 4). It was the fate of all who died a physical death, the righteous and wicked, before the advent of the Messiah (see CCC 632-33).
In verse 5, the psalmist calls for the covenant community to join him in praising God for his deliverance and the liturgical assembly to sing (zamar) and give thanks (yada) to God. He testifies that God's anger expressed in temporal judgments is not forever, and repentance at nightfall leads to forgiveness and rejoicing at dawn.
In the last part of the reading, the psalmist returns to the reversal God accomplished for him. He uses the poetic theme of polarities by contrasting mourning (the Hebrew word is misped) with dancing. The Hebrew word misped goes beyond the typical reflective state of mourning and implies external, ritual acts of mourning, like a dirge sung in a procession for the dead. He confesses that God in His mercy changed what could have been a dance of grief into a dance of praise (Ecc 3:4 pairs these same two words), and for this, he forever gives God his thanks (verse 13).
The words of this psalm recall the mission of David's descendant and heir, Jesus, the Davidic Messiah. In His glorious resurrection, Jesus thanks God the Father for not abandoning Him to Sheol, the abode of the dead into which He descended after His physical death to redeem those imprisoned there (1 Pt 3:18-20; 4:6). In this context, the psalm reveals its prophetic meaning in proclaiming what God did when he raised Jesus after death and what He will also do for us. Therefore, when reciting this psalm, we should rejoice as disciples of the Lord as we acknowledge Jesus as our defender and Savior. Even if we suffer, either because of sin in the world or for persecution in defending Christ, we have confidence that our Lord will not abandon us to the grave. Instead, our mourning will be turned into gladness when we enter the heavenly Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The Second Reading 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15 ~ The Need
for Charity
7 As you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse,
knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you, may you excel in
this gracious act also. [...] 9 For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor so that by his
poverty you might become rich. [...] 13 Not that others should have relief
while you are burdened, but that as a matter of equality, your abundance at the
present time should supply their needs, so that their abundance may 14 also
supply your needs, that there may be equity. 15 As it is written: "Whoever had
much did not have more, and whoever had little did not have less."
St. Paul's second letter to the church at Corinth, Greece, written from Macedonia about a year after his first letter, is a letter of recommendation for Titus and an unnamed missionary companion. Paul sent Titus (who had since arrived) to correct and encourage the community in faith and right teaching (8:6-7, 16-17). Among other problems, it appears the Corinthians were not meeting the needs of people experiencing poverty within their community.
Paul begins by complimenting the faith community in verse 7 before reminding them of the sacrifice Jesus made for them by giving up His life on the altar of the Cross. Paul reminds them that Christ stripped Himself of His divine glory and the privileges that were rightly His as God's divine Son. He did this so He might share in our frail human lives, sufferings, and death. He willingly made this sacrifice so they might receive the gift of forgiveness of their sins and the promise of eternal life (verse 9). Paul asks, if Christ could make this great sacrifice of His life, can't they make the small sacrifice of some material blessings for the sake of others?
Then, in verse 13, Paul introduces the principle of equality in the discussion. The goal is not impoverishment or privation but the sharing of resources for the benefit of all. In verse 15, Paul quotes Exodus 16:18 and grounds his argument on the experience of the children of Israel when they gathered manna in the desert. Equality was achieved independently of personal success in collecting the resource of the manna with an even hand according to their need: Whoever had much did not have more, and whoever had little did not have less. This example is the same principle Paul wants the Corinthians to apply to their faith community.
Today's Second Reading should cause us to reflect on our responsibility to love our neighbor as ourselves, which Jesus identified as the second greatest commandment (Mt 23:39). We must resolve to share our resources with those in need as a demonstration of our obedience to Jesus's command to "love our neighbor as ourselves." We should do this in gratitude for the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior on our behalf and for the resulting temporal and eternal blessings we have received.
The Gospel of Mark 5:21-43 or 5:21-24, 35-43 ~ New Life
in Christ
In Mark 5:21-43, we have two healing miracles told within
one story. To fully understand the significance of the teaching, it is
necessary to read the entire passage in Mark 5:21-43. St. Mark purposely intertwines
the stories of Jairus's daughter and the bleeding woman. Notice the significant
repeats in the two stories emphasized in our copy of the text with the words "daughter,"
"twelve years," "healed," and "faith."
Mark 5:21-24 ~ The Daughter of Jairus
21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other
side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. 22 One
of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him, he fell at
his feet 23 and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, "My daughter is at
the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may [be healed]
get well and live." 24 He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him
and pressed upon him.
[...] = literal translation, IBGE, Vol. IV, page 107;
underlining added for emphasis.
According to Matthew's Gospel, after His healing miracles on the opposite shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus crossed the lake and "came into his own town" (Mt 9:1), presumably to Capernaum, His ministry's headquarters in Galilee. An official of the local Synagogue had faith that Jesus could heal his daughter. He was an important man in the community, but notice how reverently he approached Jesus in verses 22-23.
Seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and pleaded earnestly with him,
saying, "My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your
hands on her that she may get well and live."
Jairus asked Jesus to "lay your hands" on his daughter, and Jesus
agreed to accompany Jairus to his home. The laying of hands on someone who was
sick by an agent of God was an act that reflected the belief that the power of God's
spirit of healing could be transmitted by the power of touch (see 2 Kng 4:34).
The "laying-on-of-hands" was a practice recorded in the Bible since the time of
the ratification of the Sinai Covenant and signified a transfer of power in
various ways; for example:
Mark 5:25-34 ~ The Healing of Woman with the Hemorrhage
25 There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve
years. 26 She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had
spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. 27 She had
heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. 28
She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be [healed] cured." 29
Immediately, her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed
of her affliction. 30 Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,
turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?" 31 But his
disciples said to him, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you
ask, 'Who touched me?'" 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 The
woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling.
She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, "Daughter,
your faith has [healed] saved you. Go in peace and be cured of
your affliction."
[...] = literal translation, IBGE, Vol. IV, page 108;
"be healed" in 5:23 is the same word as in 5:28 and 5:33 in the Greek text; underlining
is added for emphasis.
While Jesus was on his way to the home of Jairus, a woman with a bleeding problem touched His garment with the hope of being healed. The woman suffered from uncontrolled bleeding for 12 years (verse 25), perhaps caused by fibrous tumors in her uterus. The continuous bleeding would have had a significant impact on her life. For twelve years, she had been in a continual state of being ritually unclean. Anything she sat on or laid upon became "unclean," and anyone touching her, her bed, or garments also became ritually unclean. Continuing in this state of ritual impurity, she could not attend her synagogue or Temple worship, and her condition impacted her association with friends and family. She would not have been able to even take her meals with them (see Lev 15:19-30).
When she touched Jesus's cloak (probably grasping the tassel on the corner of His cloak as in Mk 6:56) in her desperation to receive healing, Jesus immediately felt the power go out of Him. When He discovered who had touched Him, Jesus praised her faith, telling her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace" (underlining added for emphasis). We might ask, if Jesus is God, why didn't He know who touched Him? Of course, He knew, but He asked the question knowing the answer in the same way God asked "Where are you?" when He confronted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:9). God demanded to know not where they were hiding but where they were in their relationship with Him, inviting them to come forward and confess their sin. In this case, Jesus asked the woman to reveal her faith, healing, and gratitude so He could grant her His peace and forgiveness. Also, her public confession of healing would be an effective witness to others in bringing them to repentance and conversion.
Mark 5:35-43 ~ The Healing of Jairus's Daughter
35 While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue
official's house arrived and said, "Your daughter has died; why trouble
the teacher any longer?" 36 Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus
[immediately] said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid, just have faith."
37 He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and
John, the brother of James. 38 When they arrived at the house of the synagogue
official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39
So he went in and said to them, "Why this commotion and weeping? This child is
not dead but asleep." 40 And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He
took along the child's father and mother and those who were with him and
entered the room where the child was. 41 He took the child by the hand and said
to her, "Talitha koum," which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise!" 42 The
girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that,
they were utterly astounded. 43 He gave strict orders that no one should know
this and said that she should be given something to eat (underlining added
for emphasis).
When someone from Jairus's house arrived to tell him his daughter had died, Jesus told Jairus to have faith. Faith is the same word Jesus spoke to the woman with the hemorrhage of blood in verse 34. Even though Jairus knew that His child was dead, there were past miracles that might have encouraged him to have faith that Jesus could raise his daughter from death. For example, the prophets Elijah and Elisha raised children from the dead (1 Kng 17:17-24 and 2 Kng 4:18-37).
When Jesus arrived at Jairus's house, He only allowed Peter, James and his brother John Zebedee, and the child's parents to enter the child's room. Including the child, there were seven people in the room. Seven is one of the so-called perfect numbers, and in Scripture, it symbolizes perfection and fulfillment, especially spiritual perfection. This event was the first time Peter, James, and John were singled out from among the other Apostles to accompany Jesus. They would also accompany Him when He ascended the Mt. of Transfiguration (Mk 9:2) and when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest (Mk 14:33).
In verse 39, Jesus insisted that the child was not dead. His statement that she was only asleep was a message of hope for the family. Jesus's command, Talitha koum in Aramaic, the common language of His time in Judea, means "Little girl, arise!" Her "sleep" and "rising" will prefigure an even greater miracle in the future in Jesus's Resurrection and the "sleep" of the faithful as they await the final bodily resurrection to come at the end of the age (see 1 Cor 15:51-56; 1 Thes 4:14-18).
In verse 43, Jesus gave the parents the practical command to provide the child with something to eat. He also told them not to share the true nature of the miracle. Jesus asked for their silence because opposition to Him continued to grow, and He needed more time before the climax of His mission.
The significance of the parallel stories of the official's daughter and the bleeding woman is that in the healings, the woman and the girl are Biblical "types" of Israel: both are "daughters" of Israel. Notice that Jesus calls the woman "daughter," and the child is the "daughter" of the Synagogue official. The woman bled for twelve years, and the girl was twelve years old. Twelve is the symbolic number of Israel, a people who were the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel. Jesus healed the woman and raised the girl from the dead, just as He came to heal Old Covenant Israel and to free the faithful from bondage to sin and death by calling them to "arise" to a new life in a new and eternal covenant.
| The Daughter | The Bleeding Woman | Israel |
| The official calls her his daughter (Mk 5:23). | Jesus calls the woman daughter (Mk 5:34). | Both the girl and the woman are daughters of Israel. |
| The official's daughter was twelve years old (Mk 5:42). | The woman bled for twelve years (Mk 5:25). | Twelve is the number of Israel, composed initially of twelve tribes that were the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel. |
| Jesus healed and raised the official's daughter from death, restoring the girl to her family (Mk 5:42). | Jesus healed the bleeding woman, restoring her to her community (Mk 5:34). | Jesus came to heal and restore Israel: to raise the faithful remnant of the new Israel from bondage to death and a new life in Christ Jesus and His New Covenant Kingdom of the Church. |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2011 | ||
Bishop Eusebius recorded in his 4th-century AD Church history that the woman with the uncontrolled bleeding lived in Caesarea Philippi. He wrote that she was one of the first to spread the Gospel message of salvation through Christ Jesus in her city, making her home a gathering place for Christians. He recorded that she also erected two statues. One statue was of Jesus, and the other was of herself reaching out to touch the tassel of His garment to commemorate the event of her healing miracle. Eusebius also testified that he had seen the statues (Church History, Book 6, Chapter 18).
About a decade ago, archaeologists at Caesarea Philippi discovered the ruins of a 1st-century AD house with Christian symbols. They believe the markings indicate it was a home that became a meeting place for early Christians. Perhaps they discovered the house of the woman with the bleeding condition who Jesus healed physically and spiritually, who accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior and offered her testimony concerning Christ and her home as a gathering place for early Christians.
Jesus also offers to raise us to a new life like the Synagogue official's daughter and heals us of the uncleanliness of our sins, like the bleeding woman. All we need to do is to have faith and to submit ourselves to God as the restored sons and daughters of the New Covenant in Christ our Redeemer, proclaiming as we do in today's Alleluia acclamation, "Our Savior Jesus Christ destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel."
Catechism References (* indicates Scripture is quoted
or paraphrased in the citation)
Wisdom 1:13 (CCC 413, 1008*),
2:23-24 (CCC 1008*)
2 Corinthians 8:9 (CCC 517, 1351, 2407, 2546)
Mark 5:21-42 (CCC 994*), 5:25-34 (CCC 548*), 5:28 (CCC 2616*); 5:34 (CCC 1504*); 5:36 (CCC 1504*, 2616*)
Jesus raises the dead (CCC 548*, 549*, 646*, 994*)
Christ transforms death (CCC 1009*, 1010*, 1011*, 1012*, 1013*, 1014)
The hope for a new Heaven and new earth (CCC 1042*, 1043*, 1044*, 1045*, 1046*, 1047-49, 1050*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2015; revised 2024 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.