Jesus the Leader

Earlier this week, Pope Francis celebrated an open air mass in Ecuador and discussed a vision for evangelization in his homily.  As part of the reflection, he tells us God says:

“Look, I am at the door and I am calling; do you want to open the door?”  He does not use force, he does not break the lock, he knocks gently on the door and then waits.  This is our God!   

We may imagine the first Apostles approaching homes they visited in this way as well.  As we hear in the Gospel this week, Jesus sends them out in pairs to spread the Gospel message by traveling village to village and staying with the locals in each place they stop.  Jesus instructed them to stay in the home which welcomes them in.  One set of biblical footnotes tell us that this was a way that the Apostles could be less focused on their personal comforts and more focused on their mission- they could have jumped from home to home in the same town to find a better stay, but they did not.  

These first Missionary Apostles were sent out directly from the direction of Jesus.  These are the first ones in Mark’s Gospel who are given the power to heal and to teach in the name of Jesus.  One would have to consider why Jesus would pick this time to send the Apostles out.  Perhaps he thought it would be helpful for those in the surrounding areas to hear a different voice, maybe he knew the great opportunities that were out there if they spread their forces, or, most likely, he wanted them to begin to work this important mission while he was still present with them.  

Jesus’ actions in this passage can teach us a little bit about his leadership characteristics.  From day one of calling Peter and Andrew promising to make them “fishers of men,” Jesus was not only spreading his message of faith on his own, but was also forming the Apostles to carry on his own mission after him.  At this point, he must have thought they were ready to go off on their own.  As we will hear next week, they do come back together a basically work through a de-brief of their work... much like an organization may do after a project is completed.

This passage can serve as a motivation to us.  Jesus calls all of us to set out on a mission to spread the Gospel message to all we meet.  In order to do our part though, we have to allow him to enter our lives and stay with us in our homes.  As our Holy Father reminds us, God will wait for us to let him in… we must do the same for others.

Healed by Faith

This weekend, we are lucky as Mark's Gospel presents us with two miracles relating to healing in the same passage.  As Jesus is on the way to a man's home to raise a little girl, another woman seeks him out and touches his cloak as he passes by.  Immediately she is healed and Jesus continues on to raise the girl from the dead.  In both cases, he points out that faith is the gift through which the healings took place.  

“Daughter, your faith has saved you."Mark 5:34 
“Do not be afraid; just have faith.”Mark 5:36

In both cases it seems as if the people in the stories are desperate for healing from somewhere.  The woman healed through Jesus' cloak had been suffering for years and no doctors' care could help her.  The man from synagogue begged Jesus to visit his daughter since she was near death.  The same could be said for us... do we only reach out to God when we are desperate?  It is sometimes hard for us to make the connection with God when things are going well.  We don't always see the need to either thank him or simply acknowledge his existence.  In a challenging situation or in circumstances similar to the ones we read about this week, turning to God as a last resort is one of the things we are best at.  While this is very much acceptable and right of us to do, we must also remember that God guides us through the good times in our lives as well through the blessings and talents he bestows upon us.  

Through these healing stories, we learn that our faith is the vehicle through which we can fully see the power of God.  The man who comes to Jesus about his daughter is named Jairus.  A quick search online brings up multiple sources which seem to agree that the name Jairus roughly means "whom God enlightens."  Nothing within the scriptures is pure circumstance.  The fact that the man's name is Jairus is significant as it is through him that Jesus' healing power is revealed.  Because he is described as a man from the synagogue, we can make a little bit of an assumption that he had seen, or at least heard of, Jesus many times around the area and he would have known of  Jesus' miracles.  God enlightened him with a strong faith in Jesus which gave him the strength to ask for help.  Without the man's faith in Jesus, the girl is not healed.  Without his faith, this story never provides us a witness of Jesus' healing power.

This week in our daily lives, let us attempt to have a stronger faith- a faith that trusts in the power of God and his plan for our lives.  Let us always turn to him in thanksgiving and praise for the good times in our lives and then look to him for strength and solace through the tough times.