A Soft Miracle on the HudsonJune 28, 2009, Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24 2 Cor. 8:7, 9, 13-15 Mark 5:: 21-24, 35-43
To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a church not built by human hands[2]
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark
Glory to you, Lord.
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him, and He stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing Him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with Him, saying, "My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live." Jesus went off with the official, and a large crowd followed and pressed upon Him.
While on their way some people from the synagogue official's house met them and said, "Your daughter has died; why trouble the Master any longer?" Disregarding the message, Jesus said to the official, "Do not be afraid; just have faith." He did not allow anyone to accompany Him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the official’s house, He saw great confusion and heard loud weeping and wailing. Jesus went in and said to the crowd, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep." And they ridiculed Him. Then He put them all out. He took along the child's father and mother and His three disciples and went into the room where the child was lying. Then He took the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum," which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise!" The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that all were utterly astounded.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction
Scripture’s abounding miracles
The full reading of the gospel for this thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time is verses 21- 43 from the 5th chapter of Mark. A shorter reading is offered for those congregations which are in a rush to get in and out. That shorter reading omits verses 25-34 which relates how Jesus, who is on this way to work a miracle on Jairus’ sick daughter, stops to work a miracle on a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. The full reading gives us pause; we wonder why miracles abound abundantly in the Old and New Testament but do not abound for us today.
Our abounding miracles
In a sense they do abound for us today. A young father who witnessed the birth of his first born son exclaimed, “It’s a miracle!” For years I watched the birth of a new day rising out of Lake Michigan, splashing its glory over a sheet of glass. I have always found myself exclaiming, “It’s a miracle!”
One spring, I watched a mother robin constructing her nest on the elbow of a downspout outside my kitchen window. I marveled as she went through her divinely appointed rounds. In conformity with a built-in blueprint she constructed her nest. In blind obedience to an inner law she brought her sacred eggs to term. With motherly astuteness she managed to feed her hungry chicks despite the scarcity of early spring. With maternal concern she protected them with outstretched wings against a late winter snowstorm. With patience she taught them to fly. And then one day, led by an eternal law that governs growth and love, she let go of them, and they flew away. At the end of the day, I found myself exclaiming, “It’s a miracle!”
On Thursday, January 15, 2009. A US Airways Airbus A320 bound for Charlotte, N.C., struck a flock of birds during takeoff minutes earlier at LaGuardia Airport, New York. With both engines knocked out, a cool-headed pilot named Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger of Danville, Calif. maneuvered his crowded jetliner over New York City and ditched it into the frigid Hudson River. The plane was submerged up to its windows in the river by the time rescuers arrived in Coast Guard vessels and ferries. All 155 on board were pulled to safety. Some passengers waded in water up to their knees, standing on the wing of the plane and waiting for help. Joe Hart, one of the passengers, said of pilot “Sully,” “He was phenomenal. He landed it — I tell you what — the impact wasn't much more than a rear-end collision.” The next morning, headlines news proclaimed it “The Miracle on the Hudson.” New York Governor David Paterson agreed. “We had a miracle on 34th Street. I believe now we have had a miracle on the Hudson."
One spring, I watched a mother robin constructing her nest on the elbow of a downspout outside my kitchen window. I marveled as she went through her divinely appointed rounds. In conformity with a built-in blueprint she constructed her nest. In blind obedience to an inner law she brought her sacred eggs to term. With motherly astuteness she managed to feed her hungry chicks despite the scarcity of early spring. With maternal concern she protected them with outstretched wings against a late winter snowstorm. With patience she taught them to fly. And then one day, led by an eternal law that governs growth and love, she let go of them, and they flew away. At the end of the day, I found myself exclaiming, “It’s a miracle!”
On Thursday, January 15, 2009. A US Airways Airbus A320 bound for Charlotte, N.C., struck a flock of birds during takeoff minutes earlier at LaGuardia Airport, New York. With both engines knocked out, a cool-headed pilot named Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger of Danville, Calif. maneuvered his crowded jetliner over New York City and ditched it into the frigid Hudson River. The plane was submerged up to its windows in the river by the time rescuers arrived in Coast Guard vessels and ferries. All 155 on board were pulled to safety. Some passengers waded in water up to their knees, standing on the wing of the plane and waiting for help. Joe Hart, one of the passengers, said of pilot “Sully,” “He was phenomenal. He landed it — I tell you what — the impact wasn't much more than a rear-end collision.” The next morning, headlines news proclaimed it “The Miracle on the Hudson.” New York Governor David Paterson agreed. “We had a miracle on 34th Street. I believe now we have had a miracle on the Hudson."
Hard and soft miracles
The church’s greatest theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), speaks of miracles of the first and second order. An old seminary professor called them “hard miracles and soft miracles.” The hard miracles are the ones which defy the laws of nature. They happen rarely, if they happen at all. Sometimes hard miracles are granted to those who are “hard of heart” in order to scare the daylights out of them, like the miracles of the ten plagues meted out to cruel King Pharaoh. (Exodus chapters 7-11)
The soft miracles don't defy the laws of nature; they glory in them! As that young father gloried in the birth of his son. As we’ve gloried in sunrises and sunsets or in a robin following her divinely appointed rounds. As Captain Sulley gloried in the laws of nature as he skillfully brought his plane to safe landing on the frigid waters of the Hudson. Soft miracles abound. And they are granted to those who are “soft of heart.” Beneath a picture of three beautiful roses someone has inscribed, “For those who love there are many miracles.”
Hard miracles and the human condition
We don’t deny that hard miracles do, indeed, happen, and we find ourselves every now and then praying for one with all our hearts, when an utterly dire situation confronts us. But we are wary of religion which traffics in them, as religion sometimes does.
At the end of day, hard miracles, even when they have been granted, cannot fix the human condition. The woman miraculously cured of her hemorrhage eventually died of something else. The daughter of Jairus raised from the dead eventually died a second and last time. A hard miracle cannot put an end to death; it can only delay it. Nor can medicine, for that matter, put an end to death; every one cured by a doctor eventually dies of something else. Strange to say, it’s only dying that puts an end to death.
At the end of day, hard miracles, even when they have been granted, cannot fix the human condition. The woman miraculously cured of her hemorrhage eventually died of something else. The daughter of Jairus raised from the dead eventually died a second and last time. A hard miracle cannot put an end to death; it can only delay it. Nor can medicine, for that matter, put an end to death; every one cured by a doctor eventually dies of something else. Strange to say, it’s only dying that puts an end to death.
The messianic secret
Jesus did not traffic in miracles. Unlike many TV technicians of miracles, Jesus is reluctant to have His miracles broadcasted. “Don’t tell anyone about this,” He orders the people. After raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead, He gives strict orders not to tell anyone about the event. (Mk 5:43) That same order to hush about His miracles appears not only in this fifth chapter of Mark but also in the first chapter (verse 44) and in the seventh (verse 36) and in the eighth (verse 26).
How in the world could His miracles be possibly kept secret? Why in the world would Jesus want them to be kept secret in the first place? Scripture scholars, who call this phenomenon Mark’s “Messianic Secret,” offer different explanations. Some say that Jesus simply wanted to tone down his fame as a miracle-worker because He was afraid that would mislead people as to what He was really all about: At the end of the day He had not come to take away the world’s sufferings but to help the world carry them! He had not come to lift the cross from people’s shoulders but to help them carry it!
How in the world could His miracles be possibly kept secret? Why in the world would Jesus want them to be kept secret in the first place? Scripture scholars, who call this phenomenon Mark’s “Messianic Secret,” offer different explanations. Some say that Jesus simply wanted to tone down his fame as a miracle-worker because He was afraid that would mislead people as to what He was really all about: At the end of the day He had not come to take away the world’s sufferings but to help the world carry them! He had not come to lift the cross from people’s shoulders but to help them carry it!
Conclusion
Soft miracles abound
In his lifetime Jesus worked many miracles. He changed water into wine, multiplied the loaves and fishes, calmed a raging storm, stopped a flow of blood and raised up Jairus’ dead daughter. But think of it -- when He prayed for a miracle for Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane (“Father let this cup pass from me”), no miracle was granted Him! When we have prayed desperately for a miracle and no miracle is granted us – we remember we are not alone!
Hard miracles do not abound, but soft ones do. They abound as new-born babes, setting-suns and nesting-robins abound. A soft miracle abounded for 155 passengers on US Airways Airbus A320 when it made a soft landing on the frigid waters of the Hudson.
[1]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
Hard miracles do not abound, but soft ones do. They abound as new-born babes, setting-suns and nesting-robins abound. A soft miracle abounded for 155 passengers on US Airways Airbus A320 when it made a soft landing on the frigid waters of the Hudson.
[1]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24
