A `Soft’ Miracle on the Hudson
July 1, 2012, Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to
Mark
Glory to you, Lord.
A miracle
for a woman afflicted with severe bleeding
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. A synagogue official named Jairus came forward. Seeing Him he fell at his
feet and pleaded earnestly, saying, “Please, come lay your hands on her that
she may get well and live." He went off with Jairus, and a large crowd
followed, pressing in on Him from every side.
Now there was a woman afflicted with severe bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors. She had spent all her money, but instead of getting better she got worse all the time. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind Him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured." Immediately her flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?" But his disciples said to Jesus, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon You, and yet You ask, 'Who touched Me?'" And He looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told Him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."
Now there was a woman afflicted with severe bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors. She had spent all her money, but instead of getting better she got worse all the time. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind Him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured." Immediately her flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?" But his disciples said to Jesus, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon You, and yet You ask, 'Who touched Me?'" And He looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told Him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."
A miracle
for Jairus’ daughter
While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, “Why 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 those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. 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 they were utterly astounded. Jesus gave strict orders not to tell anyone about this. Then He ordered them to give the little girl something to eat.
While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, “Why 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 those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. 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 they were utterly astounded. Jesus gave strict orders not to tell anyone about this. Then He ordered them to give the little girl something to eat.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord
Jesus Christ.
----------------
----------------
Introduction
Time flies
Today, July 1, the new year of 2012 is no longer
new; it’s already half-a- year finished! For the young, time doesn’t go by fast
enough, and for senior citizens time flies by all too fast.
Abounding
miracles
In today’s
gospel Jesus, who is on this way to work a miracle on Jairus’ sick daughter,
stops to work a miracle on a woman afflicted with
severe bleeding for twelve years. That gives us pause: we wonder why
miracles abounded in the Old and New Testament but do not abound for us today.
In a sense they do abound for us today. A
young father who watches the birth of his firstborn son finds himself
exclaiming, “It’s a miracle!” Anyone who watches the sun rising out of Lake
Michigan at early dawn on a glorious spring day, splashing its glory over a
sheet of glass, finds himself 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, and I
found myself exclaiming, “It’s a miracle!”
A miracle on the Hudson
On 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. Now I
believe we have had a miracle on the Hudson."
Hard and soft miracles
Then there
are soft miracles. They don't defy the laws of nature; rather they glory in
them, as that young father glories in the birth of his son. As we glory in
sunrises and sunsets. As we glory 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 abound for 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 can’t fix 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, whenever 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, can’t fix the human
condition. The woman miraculously cured of her flow of blood 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. 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 5th chapter of Mark but also in the 1st chapter (verse 44), in the 7th (verse 36), and in the 8th (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 call this
phenomenon “Mark’s Messianic Secret,” and offer different explanations. One explanation says 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; 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
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. Blessed is the
one who is attuned to life’s soft miracles which abound.
In
his lifetime Jesus
worked many hard 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 hard miracle for Himself in the Garden
of Gethsemane (“Father let this cup pass from me”) no miracle was granted Him!
When we pray desperately for a miracle and no miracle is granted us – we
remember we are not alone!
