THE CHILD IS NOT DEAD, BUT ASLEEP

XIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Mk 5:21-43

The reality of death scares us and brings endless questions into our minds. There are people who take their own lives out of despair, thinking life is unworthy of living. They reached the end of the road, feeling life as being oppressive and meaningless. Suicide always brings sorrow and inflicts pain on friends and relatives, who lost their beloved one. And a very simple but pertinent question comes to everybody’s mind: Why? Without an adequate answer, the question is repeated time and again: Why? Why?

People value life so much that they do everything to keep and prolong it. And we can find great numbers of people who, in spite of being in great suffering, want to go on living, considering life as the most precious gift. Human beings dream with eternal life and, in general, refuse to accept life as the end of their identity - an end filled with emptiness. 

The gospels help us to see Jesus’ reaction before death. Facing his own death, his heart was filled with anguish and terror, which afflicted him so much that “his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground” (Lk 32:44). And he was so touched by the death of his friend Lazarus, that he cried (Jn 11:35). In this Sunday’s gospel, we see Jesus consoling the parents of a little girl, telling them that their daughter is just sleeping (Mk 5 :39). Jesus compares that to sleep, from which one will awake and rise to new life.

However, the questions caused by death are never fully answered. People never fully accept death. In Zambian traditional culture, there is no natural death, meaning that one does not die, but is killed, and the relatives of the deceased look for the killer, so that they may punish him/ her. God is never blamed for someone’s death. Instead, death is attributed to the jealousy, envy and hatred of someone, be it a neighbour or a member of the family. This search for the killer brings quarrels and divisions within the family and the community, making an outcast of the one found guilty of someone’s death. In this search for the killer, many injustices are committed and many innocent people are punished.

People need to find explanations for whatever happens, even if they are not true. They need an answer for the question: where does death come from?

It is interesting that the book of Wisdom tries to answer the same question. Like our traditional culture, it does not blame God:

“God did not make death,

and he does not delight in the death of the living.” (Wisd 1:13)

The book of wisdom attributes death to the devil: 

“through the devil’s envy death entered the world,

and those who belong to his company experience it” (Wisd 2:24)

Death is a natural phenomenon. Being created, we are mortal. Everything that has a beginning will have an end, being continuously moving towards decay. Only God is the One who is, who was and who will be. However, by God’s gift of love, we are called to eternity, and the call is expressed in our deep desire for immortality. 

If we live in God’s love and are certain of his saving love, then death should be like going into to sleep, so that we will rise to the new dawn in God’s Kingdom. Through the pain of death, we are born to the New Life in Christ.

DO NOT BE AFRAID

XII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Mark 4:35-41

“Let us cross over to the other side” (Mk 4:35). 

Crossing over to the other side is always difficult and full of danger. And Mark stresses that it was evening, when light gives place to darkness, and our hearts are troubled by doubts and seized by fear. Crossing to the other side may be spurred by hope, but it forces in the pain of loosing what remains behind. It is a jump into the unknown, crossing through darkness, in the expectation of finding light, and with it rest and peace.

The journey of crossing over is full of danger. The disciples experienced the windstorm and their boat was overwhelmed by the waves that threw it left and right, up and down, threatening to sink it to the bottom. This real storm, experienced by the disciples, is a symbol of the storms of life that all of us go through. The boat “being swamped” is a symbol of the Church that struggles to remain afloat. The disciples were in despair, knowing that they “are perishing”. Jesus was there with them, but asleep, ignorant of all their troubles and despair. And they felt as if Jesus did not care and was ready to abandon them to their fate.

It is always in difficult times that we feel abandoned and deserted by God, and we think that he is asleep or maybe he is not there at all. We must find our own way and fight our own battles, and nobody will give us a hand. God has turned is back on us.

However, even though sleeping, Jesus was there with them. Seemingly absent, yet very present, and so much so that he reproached them saying: “Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?” (Mk 4:40). 

In times of pain, suffering and hopelessness, we must remember that we are not fighting our battles alone. We are never alone. He is always with us, and he will never allow us to perish. “Even the wind and the sea obey him”.

LIVING IN EXILE

XI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - 2 Corinthians 5:6-10

Looking back at his life, Paul expresses the desire of being exiled from the body, that is of dying, so that he may be with the Lord. However, he leaves that decision to the Lord, since he only cares about one thing: do all he can to please the Lord.

In my pastoral work, I remember an old lady who called me to give her the annointing of the sick, so that the Good Lord might remember her and take her to be with him.

Paul wrote:

We are always full of confidence when we remember that to live in the body means to be exiled from the Lord, going as we do by faith and not by sight – we are full of confidence, I say, and actually want to be exiled from the body and make our home with the Lord. Whether we are living in the body or exiled from it, we are intent on pleasing him. For all the truth about us will be brought out in the law court of Christ, and each of us will get what he deserves for the things he did in the body, good or bad.

As Christians, we must be always aware that, here on earth, we are in exile, longing for our permanent dwelling, a dwelling of rest and peace in the Lord. We cannot loose sight of our goal or destination, knowing that it relativises everythig else we do and everything that we see as worthy of consideration.

In the end, we will be judged by what we do: “each of us will get what he deserves for the things he did in the body, good or bad.” (2 Cor 5:10)