Do not be Afraid. Have faith. (13th Sunday Ordinary B)

In the movie, First Knight, the free-spirited and bohemian character who lived by the sword, Lancelot, fearlessly rescued from the attack of the soldiers of the ex-Round Table Knight, Malagant, the beautiful and attractive Lady Guinevere who was betrothed to the King.  Lancelot was immediately taken in by Guinevere’s beauty. So in another occasion, Lancelot displayed his wanton bravery when he nonchalantly made it through the Gauntlet, a seemingly-impossible obstacle course set up for amusement by the King. His aim was to impress Lady Guinevere and to get closer to her.  By King Arthur’s invitation, Lancelot became one of the Round Table Knights.  The secret mutual attraction between Lancelot and the Queen continued to grow.  The free-spirited Lancelot began to learn how to care and love.  When the King was forced to go to battle one last time to defend the city of Camelot against Malagant, Lancelot, for the first time, experienced fear.  This time, he was very afraid of death because he was in love.

Aren’t we all afraid of death?  Looking at it without the eyes of faith, death can represent the tragic nature of human existence. We unconsciously avoid confronting the issue of death; we just ignore it and wish it away. When at last we muster our courage to come to terms with it, we are faced with the problem of the meaning of life altogether.  What is the point of living when by all indications we are condemned to die?  The famous Existentialist Erich Fromm, for instance, noted that at the time a person is born, he already begins to die and he always dies before he is fully born.  At birth, man begins to suffer and he will suffer until he dies.  And what makes life tragic and suffering unbearable is that an individual usually dies before his loved ones or they before him and there is no comfort in either case except pain and suffering.

Without faith in God, the origin and destiny of life, we are left with fear.  We fear our own death and, more so, that of our loved ones.  Without faith, we fear that life itself is pointless.

In today’s gospel reading (Mk 5:21-43), Jesus assures us of the triumph of life over death and suffering.  He is the answer to the riddle of our human existence.  Jesus cures the woman with a haemorrhage and restores the life of the daughter of Jairus.  These two connected incidents portray Jesus’ immersion into the suffering of human existence.  He is amid a large crowd hoping for some kind of help or relief from the different faces of suffering.  One of these is the woman who has been afflicted with haemorrhages for twelve years. The other is the synagogue official, Jairus, who is tormented by the prospect of the death of his 12-year old daughter.  Jesus is right there in the midst of the crowd’s search for hope, for meaning, for life.  And Jesus responds in accordance to the faith of those who come to him.

To the woman freed from prolonged haemorrhagic sufferings, Jesus says: “Daughter, your faith has saved you.”  To Jairus who is greeted with the sad news of the death of his daughter, Jesus says: “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” And He restores the life of the child.

Only with the eyes of faith that we can grasp the ultimate beauty of life—that life is not just pure pointless suffering that culminates in death; that life is our destiny in eternity; that the abundance of life with God is our ultimate fate. 

Today’s readings invite us not to be afraid.  But to trust in God and have faith.  Jesus makes good of the assurance of the book of Wisdom that “God did not make death nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living…. That God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him” (Wis 1:13-23).  Death is the work of the devil and Jesus has overcome its power by his own death and resurrection.  Jesus is our salvation. Jesus is our life.

“Do not be afraid. Have faith.” We can make this our mantra when we feel we are being overcome by doubt and fear amid the sufferings and seeming contradictions in life.  To trust in God, the God of the living, allows us to embrace life to its fullest, freed from the unnecessary torment of the prospect of dying. To be unafraid sets us free to be joyful in serving, unreserved in self-giving, quick in forgiving, and courageous in loving.

With faith in Jesus, life prevails and has a beautiful eternal purpose. And even our physical death can be something beautiful. In the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta: Death, in the final analysis, is only the easiest and quickest means to go back to God. If only we could make people understand that we come from God and that we have to go back to Him!

Again, we listen to the words of Jesus who reassures us: “Do not be afraid. Have faith.”