Jesus is so very generous to all to the end.  Those who believe in him and seek the kingdom of God are generous also to all.

Jesus wants us to be generous to all, not just to those we like, who are good or like us. For we are to be like our Father in heaven who is generous to the bad and the good.

And he is generous to all besides, since he means his kingdom to be for all. Though small as it starts out, the kingdom of God grows so big, so large, that it can shelter all.

So then, there is room in the kingdom of God for all, for Jews and Gentiles, for men and women. For big folks like synagogue official, Jairus, and little folks like the woman with no name who suffers from hemorrhages. Does not the kingdom of God, then, mean diversity, equity, inclusion?

But be it as it may, what counts in it is not race, sex, color, class, or language, but faith. What matters is that we fall at Jesus’ feet. Which means that we receive him as the one God has sent to be our last hope. As the one who brings in the Kingdom of God and his justice.

And there is much that Jairus and the woman with hemorrhages can teach us about faith. Both admit that, in the end, only Jesus, not their finite works and assets, can cure and save from death. He is their last resort. In other words, they count not on themselves but on him alone. And their faith in him makes them see that there is cure for the sick, that death is but sleep.

Is our faith like theirs? Do we go on believing? Though, with the troubles that come our way, Jesus seems to do all he can to make us not believe in him?

Lord Jesus, add to our faith, so that we may get to see, sense, in a tiny seed a plant with large branches for the birds to dwell in its shade, to grasp, too, in sickness health, in poverty wealth and in death life. And make us so generous to all that we become poor so that others may become rich, that we give up our bodies and shed our blood. Make us welcome most of all the little folks, like the woman with hemorrhages. Society does not look too kindly on her, due to her gender, and religion deems her to be not clean. Yet she is, no doubt, one of your poor ones who have the true religion, the living faith (SV.EN XI:190).

30 June 2024
13th Sunday in O.T. (B)
Wis 1, 13-15; 2, 23-24; 2 Cor 8, 7. 9. 13-15; Mk 5, 21-43