ANOTHER KIND OF DYING

13^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24; Ps. 30; 2 Cor. 8: 7, 9, 13-15, Mk. 5: 21-24; 35b-43

To die is to fall down. No matter how high an eagle soars in the sky, it always falls to the ground in death. No matter how green the leaves are, they too fall to the ground. No matter how powerful and mighty a person is, he/she at the moment of death falls to the ground. One can never see a dead person or animal standing mightily at the moment of death.

Our narrative today taken from the Gospel of Mark tells us about Jairus who pleads Jesus to visit his house for his daughter is at the point of death. Despite the large crowd following Jesus, he acceded to Jairus’ request. However, when they arrived, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said to him, “Your daughter has died!” Such news must have troubled Jairus’ so much. However, Jesus assured him saying, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” And true enough, when Jesus arrived, he asked the fallen girl, “Talitha koum!” (Little girl, I say to you, arise!) Indeed, death makes us fall down to the ground. But, the words of Jesus can make us rise up and live!

Thus, we are reminded in our Gospel story today that even death which causes us trouble has no power over the mighty power of God. Yes, death is inevitable. We all experience death because it is the result of evil. Our first reading today reminds us that death does not come from God. It cannot come from God because he does not rejoice “in the destruction of the living” and that “he fashioned all things that they might have being.” However, “but by the envy of the devil, death entered into the world.” Despite the inevitability of death in our lives, we must never forget too the intervention of God’s grace like the woman who was afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years yet a mere touch of Jesus’ clothes gave her complete healing.

However, St. Paul in our second reading today invites us to experience another kind of dying, of falling down. He calls this dying as a gracious act. “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.” This gracious act is our own dying from self and sin. This gracious act is our emptying of ourselves. It is gracious because through such act others will become rich, other will live. Just as physical death is inescapable, we, too Christians, are not to escape from this kind of dying – the falling down of our sinful lives; the decentering from ourselves to others. While on earth, we are called to practice this form of dying so that when physical death comes to our lives, we shall no longer fear, for we have already learned and practiced how “to die” through a life of generosity not selfishness, humility not pride, and others not the self.

And so, as we mark today the 13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, let us be aware that death is inevitable yet God’s grace is inescapable. However, while on earth, we are challenged to experience another kind of dying – death from our sinfulness so that we and others will experience God’s life in abundance.

Let us then beg the Lord to grant us the grace of learning how to die from our sinful selves so that at the moment of physical death, God will rescue us. Thereby, making our responsorial psalm today our own worship to the Father, “ I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me!”

Photo taken from www.testimoniesofheavenandhell.com