{"id":5056,"date":"2021-06-26T14:51:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T13:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/?p=5056"},"modified":"2021-06-26T14:58:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T13:58:37","slug":"commentary-on-the-13th-sunday-b-1-07-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/commentary-on-the-13th-sunday-b-1-07-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary on the 13th Sunday (B) 27.06.2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Fr Donagh O\u2019Shea OP, www.goodnews.ie<\/a><\/h3>\n

Mk 5:21-43\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n

When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea.\u00a0 Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.”\u00a0 So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him.\u00a0 <\/em>
\nNow there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years.\u00a0 She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.\u00a0 She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”\u00a0 Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”\u00a0 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?'”\u00a0 He looked all around to see who had done it.\u00a0 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.\u00a0 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”\u00a0 <\/em>
\nWhile he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?”\u00a0 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.\u00a0 When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.\u00a0 <\/em>
\nWhen he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.”\u00a0 And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was.\u00a0 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha kum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!”\u00a0 And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement.\u00a0 He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is an example of Mark’s ‘sandwiching’: in the middle of one incident he places another.\u00a0 It gives remarkable pace to his story.<\/p>\n

What is all the hurrying about?\u00a0 Jesus is hurrying to save the life of a little girl, and he heals a sick woman on the way.\u00a0 The first reading began, “Death was not God’s doing, he takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living.”\u00a0 So Jesus is doing God’s work; he heals and he restores to life.<\/p>\n

Watch how he does it.\u00a0 There is great gentleness and warmth in these two stories. The speed and the pressure of expectations didn’t make him impersonal or mechanical, as it does many busy people.\u00a0 His affectionate expression to the little girl, \u201cTalitha kum!\u201d, is retained in his own language, Aramaic. The New Testament is written in Greek, but the writers kept just a few phrases in Jesus\u2019 own language: maranatha,<\/em> and Abba <\/em>and Talitha kum<\/em>. Terms of affection translate poorly, because they are more than their dictionary meaning: they are warm words.\u00a0 (I remember an ancient woman in my village who used to address everyone as a leanbh, <\/em>‘child’.)<\/p>\n

Likewise, when the lady wanted a cure and touched his cloak rather than face him, he said, \u201cWho touched me?\u201d\u00a0 He didn’t want her cure to be anonymous; he wanted to speak to her and heal her, not just relieve her symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho touched me?\u201d\u00a0 These are words to break through the stoutest walls of anonymity.\u00a0 There is a kind of frigid atmosphere when people don’t know one another.\u00a0 If they have to exchange words they use the minimum number usually: \u201cExcuse me!\u201d \u201cThank you!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cGoodbye!\u201d\u00a0 There is seldom any real warmth in them, and the smile (if any) that goes with them looks a bit stiff.\u00a0 But \u201cwho touched me?\u201d breaks through all that.\u00a0 We can be spontaneous with our friends because we know how they will react; but we don’t know how strangers might react, so we play safe; in a sense we hide ourselves.\u00a0 The woman in the story wanted contact with Jesus, and at the same time she wanted the security of anonymity.\u00a0 So in the press of the crowd she touched the hem of his cloak; she wanted an anonymous cure.\u00a0 It is still very much with us today.\u00a0 We are drawn to anything that promises us a cure.\u00a0 You could make a list of them, from the more sensible to the less!\u00a0 What is missing in many of them is a\u00a0 Who to touch you: what we really need is a Son of God with fire of compassion in his eyes, who looks for you saying, \u201cWho touched me?\u201d\u00a0 Or \u201ctalitha kumi!\u201d\u00a0 Or even \u201ca leanbh!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Fr Donagh O\u2019Shea OP, www.goodnews.ie Mk 5:21-43\u00a0 When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea.\u00a0 Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5056"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7090,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056\/revisions\/7090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}