PRAYERS, & A LOT OF PATIENCE

Homily for 06 July 2020, Monday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Matthew 9:18-26

The character in focus in today’s Gospel, who is simply called a “synagogue official”, is quite a contrast to the military official whom we read about a few days ago. Remember that Roman Centurion who sought help from Jesus on behalf of his servant boy who was very ill? Remember how impressed Jesus was with this military official who said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you under my roof. Just say the word and my servant shall be healed.”

That man was in a position of authority and, although he was seeking a favor from Jesus on behalf of a servant whom he treated as his own son, he did not demand it as though he was entitled to Jesus’ immediate attention. All he asked for was a word—something like, “Yes, I will pray for him.” That was enough for him.

That is not the case with the synagogue official in our Gospel today. He interrupts Jesus in the middle of a teaching session. He demands immediate attention and is very specific about his request, “Come with me to my house, lay your hands on my daughter…”

The story is actually borrowed by Matthew from Mark. And honestly, I am a little disappointed about the way Matthew has revised the story. The tension that Mark has intentionally built up in his narration is lost in Matthew. In the first place, in the version of Matthew, the daughter is not critically ill but dead already.

In the original version in Mark, the official has a name—Jairus. And his daughter is in an emergency situation; she is in need of immediate attention. In a modern setting it’s as if Jesus is already with Jairus in an ambulance when they suddenly find themselves stuck in a traffic that delays the trip. The version of Mark makes you feel the urgency, the tension and the drama that is suddenly interrupted by another story: the woman with hemorrhages, who becomes the cause of delay, because Jesus pays attention to her. We call it a story within a story.

In Mark (5:21-43) you cannot miss the contrast between Jairus, who is in a rush on account of his daughter’s emergency situation, and Jesus, who is calm and taking things easy. He even takes time to look around and ask, “Who touched me?” The poor and desperate Jairus is set aside for a while by the storyteller himself. And when it resumes, it is too late.

Mark also informs his readers that the woman with hemorrhages has been suffering for twelve years already—exactly the same number of years as the age of Jairus’ daughter. Jairus is of course not aware of that. He is totally focused only on getting Jesus to reach his home just in the nick of time and to get him to lay his hands on his daughter.

It is obvious that the Gospel writer has deliberately inserted the story of the bleeding woman into the story of Jairus. He is reinforcing the sense of desperation that would later lead to the breaking of the news that would crush the heart of Jairus—that his daughter is dead already.

It does not take much to imagine the mix of shock, anger and frustration that would overwhelm Jairus when he gets hold of the news. If he had earlier held Jesus by the hand, almost dragging him along to his daughter’s bedside; now he freezes as if the whole world had stopped for him. Now they would reverse roles; it is Jesus who will take him by the hand and say to him: “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”

Despair often goes with the tendency to isolate oneself. Usually, even those who suffer also have the tendency to be insensitive to the sufferings of others. Jairus must have felt indignant that Jesus had allowed himself to be delayed. As far as he was concerned nothing else mattered at that moment but his daughter who was dying. It was totally inconsequential for him that a woman who had suffered quietly and waited for twelve years had finally found that one single opportunity for a healing encounter with Jesus.

I am inclined to think that Jesus was deliberately trying to teach Jairus the virtue of patience and the capacity to bear with other fellow sufferers. The patient waiting is a key to hope. The woman had waited for twelve years; she had not waited in vain.

To wait, to be patient, to hold on, to endure till the very end, these are typical expressions that accompany the Psalms of hope in the Old Testament. “Wait for the Lord with courage. Be stouthearted and wait for the Lord!” (Ps. 27:14. See also Pss. 5:4; 38:16; 39:8; 40:2; 42:6,12; 43:5).

We have several biblical characters who have become icons of hope just for having waited all their lives for the fulfillment of God’s promise: Abraham, who was told that he would be the “Father of many nations” but for a long time could not even have a single child; Moses, who would lead Israel out of Egypt through the desert for forty years but only up to the threshhold of the promised land; and the old man Simeon in Luke, whose waiting was finally rewarded by the child Jesus when he is presented in the temple. His patience is immortalized into a Canticle, which we are required to pray every night, the “Nunc Dimittis”. Now Master, you may let your servant go in peace for your word has been fulfilled.”

Many years for now, if we get to survive this pandemic and the next generation asks us what it was that made us survive it, I think I know what you will say in reply. I think you’ll say, “Prayers, and a lot of patience.”