Homily For Tuesday Fourth Week in Ordinary Time Year A, 31st January, 2023. The Memorial of St. John Bosco

Readings: Heb. 12:1-4; Ps.22; Mark 5:21-43

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

 

HOW TO EXPRESS THE FAITH THAT YIELDS POSITIVE RESULTS?

 

There is no doubt that people are passing through a lot of difficulties. So everyday we struggle against these troubles and tribulations, and people are doing everything they can to overcome them. But often time, it seems as if we are not making progress because we don’t have enough faith to subdue our challenges and out of fear we fall victim and helpless. The fact remains that, we have faith but we have not been able to actively and radically put it into action like the synagogue official whose daughter had died but came to Jesus for help  and also the woman with a haemorrhage in our Gospel passage today.

 

In this passage one of the officials came to Jesus and said, ‘My daughter is desperately sick, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.’ Jesus then rose and his disciples followed him to the official’s house. On their way a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years came behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, ‘If I can only touch his cloak I shall be well again.’ Jesus turned round and saw her; and he said to her, ‘Courage, my daughter, your faith has restored you to health.’ And from that moment the woman was well again. When Jesus reached the official’s house and saw the crowd making a commotion he said, ‘Get out of here; the little girl is not dead, she is asleep.’ And they laughed at him. But he went inside and took the little girl by the hand; and the girl arose.

 

Here, the father of this little girl had faith and radically put his faith into positive action, for he confessed great faith in the resurrection. He believed that even Jesus’ slightest touch will restore life in his daughter, likewise the woman with a hemorrhage. This story of the little girl and the woman with haemorrhage has interesting similarities: Both were called “daughter”, both were restored at the demonstration of radical faith in the touch of Jesus. The woman has been ill for twelve years, and the little girl was twelve years old. Both the woman and the little girl have been cut off from normal societal activities.

 

On the other hand, there were also differences between them. First the official is an influential man in the community, but the woman is unclean an outcast. The man approaches Jesus boldly, but the woman approaches him timidly. The girl was raised based on the father’s radical faith, the woman was restored through her own faith for she was very sure that the very moment she touched the Lord’s cloak all her troubles were ended, for her body was made whole again.

 

This woman and the little girl actually represent the sinful humanity in need of God’s mercy, salvation and restoration. The faith and intercession of the synagogue official signifies the great intercessions of the saints and the people of God towards the restoration of humanity. The woman’s bleeding signifies the iniquity of all humanity who are defiled by the constant shading of innocent blood through violence, wars and abortions, thereby make humanity unworthy of God’s presence. Her reaching out to touch Jesus and her restoration signifies the effort each one of us needs to make to reach out to God in order to be restored and finally the willingness of Jesus to heal all of us just as he had healed the woman from all of her troubles and restored the girl back to life. But this requires that we radically put our faith into action.

 

Dear friends, we are called to put our faith into positive action. For if we have no faith in the Lord and refused to put our faith in action, we will suffer and there is no hope for us. I don’t know why we are  often stubborn and often hardened our hearts and minds by refusing to trust the Lord who is so generous and compassion. Today  therefore, we are made to know that, it is not enough to have faith, we must radically put our faith into action no matter the circumstances we find ourselves. Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection as we heard in our first reading. For it is through active faith that we can reach out to God in prayers and so obtain what we desired.

 

Hence, let us then learn from St. John Bosco whose memorial we celebrate today for despite the challenges and oppositions he faced in life, he remained committed in expressing his faith in God through his work as a priest and made great impacts in the lives the of youths of his time and even in our time for through many people who sharing in his spirituality, founded the Order of the Salesians of Don Bosco, one of the great religious orders in our society today.

 

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of faith, through the intercession of St.  John Bosco give us the grace and courage to put our gift of faith into positive action that yields positive results. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do have a fruitful day.