13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

You may be aware of our Church’s stance of the right to life (from conception to natural death) but where does that “pro-life” stance come from?  Today’s readings give us a starting point to better understanding this often politically charged issue with some much needed perspective…

The Word for the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-24
Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13
2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15
Mark 5:21-43 or 5:21-24, 35b-43

Our first reading comes from the Book of Wisdom, a book we Catholics turn to often in the Liturgy.  For Jesus and the Apostles, the Book of Wisdom would have been considered contemporary.  Having come from the Jewish community in Alexandria about 50 years before Christ, it served as a kind of updated catechism, pulling its basic teaching and wisdom from the Exodus story and other earlier wisdom books like Sirach, while focusing its message on the special concerns faced by Jewish people of that era, especially of those Jews in Alexandria and others living outside of Israel who were beginning to face persecution, a situation early Christians often faced.  This week’s passage is very simple:  “God did not make death.”  Put another way, everything that is light and life comes from God, while death is from the envy of the devil.

Our Psalm carries this idea of life one step further.  Not only is God the creator of life, he is also the one who rescues you from death.  Even as we are tempted to follow the devil into darkness, it is God who will rescue us, and God whom we praise.

Our Gospel from Mark has Jesus meeting with Jairus, one of the Synagogue officials, who is pleading with Jesus to heal his daughter who is sick and near death at his home.  Jesus is surrounded by a crowd and as he is making his way toward the house, a sick woman manages to reach out and touch his cloak and is healed.  Initially upset by the encounter, Jesus reminds her that it was her faith that cured her.  Upon finally reaching the house then, Jesus is told the young girl has died.  Unwilling to accept this, however, Jesus enters the room, takes the girl’s hand and says “Little girl, I say to you, rise.”  The girl got up immediately and those around him were utterly astounded.  Jesus, through God, brings life, not death.

While our first reading, our Psalm, and our Gospel remind us of the life-giving power of God, our second reading (continuing our study of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians) offers us some practical wisdom on how we can be like Christ.  Paul teaches that our abundance must be used to support those in need.  The idea is perhaps better expressed by the prayer of St. Francis, “it is in giving that we receive.”

Final Thoughts:
Love is an act of selflessness.  To give of oneself to help others.  This is what Jesus taught his disciples and what Jesus did for us by offering himself on the Cross.  And it is through these acts of selflessness that we find life.  A life saved by helping someone else or the eternal life we receive through our service to one another.  We do this because God is within all of us, within everyone and all his creation.  This is what it means really means to be “pro-life.”  To respect the spirit of God that lives in each one of us and within every living thing.  To give of ourselves that this life in others may thrive.  This “gospel of life” goes way beyond the contemporary issues of abortion, capital punishment and euthanasia.  It is the basis of our life in Christ.  To do otherwise only leads us to destruction.  Far too often we think of these issues as separate and all are highly politicized, but in light of the Gospel they are part of a greater whole, and if we are to make any progress on any of these issues, we need to be more conscious of the bigger picture.  And thankfully, though we may falter, through the grace of God, we always have a way back.