Power of Faith

Father Sylvain Brison

in Magnificat

Today's Gospel reading presents us with not one, but two interwoven narratives. This intertwining of the woman's healing and the bleeding in the agony of Jairus' daughter demands that we understand them together. Both address the issue of the evil that afflicts us (illness and death), but also the act of faith in Christ that allows God to unleash his saving power in the midst of our lives (healing and restoration). Today, death and illness are shrouded in such modesty that we are reluctant to confront them. The debates surrounding end-of-life care that are currently roiling our country also remind us that our mortal existence contains more than one. Amidst these controversies, it is good to listen to the word of God, which reveals his life-giving power in the midst of our suffering.

Faith, gentleman burglar?

While the Gospel begins with the eagerness to summon Jesus to the bedside of the sick girl, it is the healing of the woman with the issue of blood that delays Jesus and makes him arrive "too late." Since the sick woman is at her very end, why does he stop? Why waste time searching for who touched him in the midst of a crowd pressing and jostling him from all sides? The question itself is incongruous, as the disciples attest: "How can you know who touched you, since everyone is touching you?" The Lord indicates by this that it is this woman's faith that truly touched him, to the point that power went out from him. Great is the faith of this woman, who goes so far as to "steal" his healing from the Lord! She steals not only health, but also righteousness, for she, who was ritually impure, finds her place among the assembled people.

To believe against all odds

The question of faith continues to permeate the narrative. The delay has been too great, the young girl is dead, so what good is it to disturb the master? Here again, the power of God makes all things new; transcending the slumber of death, the Lord summons the faith of those close to him: “Do not be afraid; only believe.” In the intimacy of the room and among close friends, Jesus takes the child’s hand and calls her to life. Gregory of Nyssa powerfully reiterates this: “He approached death so closely as to come into contact with our mortal state and provide our nature with the principle of resurrection.” Beyond the risk of defilement by touching a dead person, Christ snatches the life of this young girl from death, and she returns to her family. The two women of the Gospel thus offer us a striking testimony to the power of God, which enables us to experience his life within us. In our world where the suffering of illness and death seems to reign over us, the life-giving power of Christ seizes us to heal and save us.

Speech to the youth of Chile 02/04/1987

of Saint John Paul II (1920-2005) pope

(trans. DC 1939, p. 481)

"The young girl immediately stood up."

Christ enters the house where the girl is, takes her by the hand, and says to her, “Little girl, I tell you, get up!”... Dear young people, the world needs your personal response to the Master's words of life: “I tell you, get up!” We see how Jesus comes to meet humanity in the most difficult and painful situations. The miracle performed in Jairus's house shows us his power over evil. He is the Lord of life, the victor over death...

But we cannot forget that, according to what the faith teaches us, the primary cause of evil, of illness, even of death, is sin in its various forms. Hidden in the heart of each and every one of us is this illness that affects us all: personal sin, which takes root more and more deeply in our consciences as our sense of God is lost. Yes, dear young people, be careful not to let your sense of God weaken. We cannot overcome evil with good if we do not have this sense of God, of his action, of his presence, which invites us to always place our faith in grace, in life, against sin, against death. The fate of humanity is at stake...

It follows that we must consider the social implications of sin in order to build a world worthy of humanity. There are social evils that create a true "communion of sin" because, along with the soul, they degrade the Church and, in a certain way, the entire world.

Dear young people, fight the good fight of faith (1 Tim 6:12) for the dignity of humankind, for the dignity of love, for a noble life, a life as children of God. Overcoming sin with the help of God's forgiveness is a healing, it is a resurrection. Do not be afraid of the demands of Christ's love. On the contrary, fear pusillanimity, frivolity, the pursuit of your own interests, selfishness—everything that seeks to silence the voice of Christ who, addressing each of us, repeats: "I tell you, get up."