READING OF THE DAY First reading from the Book of Wisdom Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24
God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is not a destructive drug among them nor any domain of the netherworld on earth, for justice is undying. For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to his company experience it.
Second reading from the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15
Brothers and sisters: As you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you, may you excel in this gracious act also.
For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. Not that others should have relief while you are burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their needs, so that their abundance may also supply your needs, that there may be equality. As it is written: Whoever had much did not have more, and whoever had little did not have less.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to Mark Mk 5:21-43
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.” He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. 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. 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.”
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. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER I ask you: do each of you feel that you need to be healed? Of something, of some sin, of some problem? And, if you feel this, do you have faith in Jesus? These are the two requirements in order to be healed, in order to have access to his heart: to feel in need of healing and to entrust yourself to Him. Jesus goes to discover these people among the crowd and removes them from anonymity, frees them from the fear of living and of taking risks. He does so with a look and a word which sets them back on the path after much suffering and humiliation. We too are called to learn and to imitate these freeing words and this gaze which restores the will to live to those who lack it. (Angelus, 1 J 2018)
FAUSTI - "Your faith has saved you," Jesus says to the woman; and to the father of the dead girl . "Continue to have faith." The two episodes, interlocked and linked by the words "save", "believe" and "touch" (take the hand) complement each other and illustrate what faith is and what its power is. Faith is "touching" Jesus , His power saves in death. Communion with Him overcomes our mortal illness and death itself. The woman and the girl are a figure of all of us.Like the first, from twelve years, that is from always, we lose our lives, far from the Lord. Only if we touch Him are we saved, because He is our life. Like the second, at the age of marriage, we die sick of love if the Bridegroom does not come to take our hand. Our life, in fact, is to love Him as we are loved by Him. The central theme is therefore faith, that "touching" which saves. Touching presupposes closeness. The first and fundamental form of knowledge, it is contact with the other. In it, one's own limits become a place of communion. Finally, there is an exterior touch and an interior one, which takes and transforms the heart. Touching is opposed to crushing. While this will result in seizing and killing Jesus, the latter releases from Him His strength of Life. Salvation, invoked also by the disciples in the boat, comes from this faith. It allows us to touch Him and be seized by Him, who slept before us and for us. The woman dared not show herself: being unclean, she was forbidden to touch Him. On the other hand, our relationship with God and our search for Him can only come to His shoulders, as it was said to Moses: "You will see my shoulders, but you cannot see my Face" (Ex 33:23). "If I touch even His garments..." (He will bequeath them to us on the Cross). taking in exchange our nakedness). This faith is not magic or fetishism; man's salvation is really Communion with God, now possible through the flesh with which the Son clothed Himself. The woman knows her own healing in her body, but she does not yet know in her spirit the One who healed her. Jesus, having known the energy that comes from Him, the power of God, life that conquers death, seeks with His gaze and His Word the woman who has believed in Him, in order to dialogue with her. Now she stands before Him to answer Him and falls at His feet to adore Him. Her truth was her incurable illness, her despair of self and all, her hope in Him, His touch and healing. But it is only in talking about all this with Him that faith is fulfilled. The disciple is like the woman, the daughter of Zion who touches Jesus and is saved from her evil, is like the dead girl who is resurrected by the touch of the Bridegroom. Faith heals us from the sin of mistrust that makes us ignore that we come from God and return to Him. Only in this way can we live and die in peace, knowing that we sleep with Christ, who first slept in the same boat as us, to awaken with Him. Jesus, in front of the girl's father and mother, takes her hand. He too will be taken and led to death. That is why He now takes and rescues the girl from death. She belongs to Him, who came to take her hand. This contact with Him and the sound of His voice wakes her up. "Arise, my friend, my fair one, and come" (Ct 2:10). She walks on a path she did not know before: it is the path of life, full of joy in His presence, sweetness without end at His right hand (Ps 16:11).
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst reading from the Book of Wisdom
Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24
God did not make death,
nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.
For he fashioned all things that they might have being;
and the creatures of the world are wholesome,
and there is not a destructive drug among them
nor any domain of the netherworld on earth,
for justice is undying.
For God formed man to be imperishable;
the image of his own nature he made him.
But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world,
and they who belong to his company experience it.
Second reading from the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians
2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15
Brothers and sisters:
As you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse,
knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you,
may you excel in this gracious act also.
For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.
Not that others should have relief while you are burdened,
but that as a matter of equality
your abundance at the present time should supply their needs,
so that their abundance may also supply your needs,
that there may be equality.
As it is written:
Whoever had much did not have more,
and whoever had little did not have less.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFrom the Gospel according to Mark
Mk 5:21-43
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.”
He went off with him,
and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.
She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors
and had spent all that she had.
Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.
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.
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.”
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.
He gave strict orders that no one should know this
and said that she should be given something to eat.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
I ask you: do each of you feel that you need to be healed? Of something, of some sin, of some problem? And, if you feel this, do you have faith in Jesus? These are the two requirements in order to be healed, in order to have access to his heart: to feel in need of healing and to entrust yourself to Him. Jesus goes to discover these people among the crowd and removes them from anonymity, frees them from the fear of living and of taking risks. He does so with a look and a word which sets them back on the path after much suffering and humiliation. We too are called to learn and to imitate these freeing words and this gaze which restores the will to live to those who lack it. (Angelus, 1 J 2018)
FAUSTI - "Your faith has saved you," Jesus says to the woman; and to the father of the dead girl . "Continue to have faith." The two episodes, interlocked and linked by the words "save", "believe" and "touch" (take the hand) complement each other and illustrate what faith is and what its power is. Faith is "touching" Jesus , His power saves in death.
RispondiEliminaCommunion with Him overcomes our mortal illness and death itself.
The woman and the girl are a figure of all of us.Like the first, from twelve years, that is from always, we lose our lives, far from the Lord.
Only if we touch Him are we saved, because He is our life.
Like the second, at the age of marriage, we die sick of love if the Bridegroom does not come to take our hand. Our life, in fact, is to love Him as we are loved by Him.
The central theme is therefore faith, that "touching" which saves.
Touching presupposes closeness. The first and fundamental form of knowledge, it is contact with the other.
In it, one's own limits become a place of communion.
Finally, there is an exterior touch and an interior one, which takes and transforms the heart.
Touching is opposed to crushing. While this will result in seizing and killing Jesus, the latter releases from Him His strength of Life.
Salvation, invoked also by the disciples in the boat, comes from this faith.
It allows us to touch Him and be seized by Him, who slept before us and for us.
The woman dared not show herself: being unclean, she was forbidden to touch Him.
On the other hand, our relationship with God and our search for Him can only come to His shoulders, as it was said to Moses: "You will see my shoulders, but you cannot see my Face" (Ex 33:23). "If I touch even His garments..." (He will bequeath them to us on the Cross). taking in exchange our nakedness).
This faith is not magic or fetishism; man's salvation is really Communion with God, now possible through the flesh with which the Son clothed Himself.
The woman knows her own healing in her body, but she does not yet know in her spirit the One who healed her. Jesus, having known the energy that comes from Him, the power of God, life that conquers death, seeks with His gaze and His Word the woman who has believed in Him, in order to dialogue with her.
Now she stands before Him to answer Him and falls at His feet to adore Him.
Her truth was her incurable illness, her despair of self and all, her hope in Him, His touch and healing.
But it is only in talking about all this with Him that faith is fulfilled.
The disciple is like the woman, the daughter of Zion who touches Jesus and is saved from her evil, is like the dead girl who is resurrected by the touch of the Bridegroom.
Faith heals us from the sin of mistrust that makes us ignore that we come from God and return to Him. Only in this way can we live and die in peace, knowing that we sleep with Christ, who first slept in the same boat as us, to awaken with Him.
Jesus, in front of the girl's father and mother, takes her hand.
He too will be taken and led to death. That is why He now takes and rescues the girl from death.
She belongs to Him, who came to take her hand.
This contact with Him and the sound of His voice wakes her up.
"Arise, my friend, my fair one, and come" (Ct 2:10). She walks on a path she did not know before: it is the path of life, full of joy in His presence, sweetness without end at His right hand (Ps 16:11).