Do Not Be Afraid; Have Faith

So often in life we come to various ‘crossroad’ situations that can raise our ‘blood pressure’ if not our anxiety and fears, and our response can too quickly become – something like: “How can God let this happen to me?” “What did I do to deserve this?” “Where is God in all of this?”

For sure, we might – understandably – move too quickly to conclude that God is ‘not listening’ to our prayer, or think He is ‘not capable,’ or – worse! – that we’ve done something wrong ‘to deserve it!’ This simply creates even more anxiety, even though it’s never true.

Could this – we might imagine – be the case with Jairus, the synagogue official we hear about in today’s Sunday Gospel who comes to Jesus extremely anxious? Even the Scripture’s tell us that Jairus “fell at His feet and pleaded earnestly with Him,” so great was his concern for his daughter. Or is it possibly the case that Jairus is reminding us of a more faith-filled way of praying?

It’s true, more often than we care to admit – which surely is the case for me! – that Jesus can become our ‘go-to fix’ when we experience times of trouble, doubt or pain. Fair enough; however, quite often we find ourselves ‘slipping into’ an old adage – not for better! – of thinking that “when all else fails, pray!”

When Jairus comes to Jesus –which is found in all three synoptic Gospels: Matthew 9:18-26, Luke 8:40-56 and Mark 5:21-43 –  he comes publicly as a ‘public’ official of the Jewish Synagogue, which means he is coming from the Jewish ruling class that would have greatly despised Jesus and sought to dismiss His ministry. Yet, Jairus is essentially telling everyone that he believes in Jesus and that he has already come to believe that He can heal his daughter without question. In fact, Jesus does reward Jairus’ public witness and faith not because he ‘pleads’ before Him, but because he has already come to faith long before he kneels at Jesus’ feet!

This might be how we think of one of the greatest converts and missionaries in the life of the Church: St. Paul! We are ever so familiar with St. Paul’s conversion story which even he tells us about several times in the New Testament, and how he publicly witnesses time and time again that Jesus is the one, true LORD. St. Paul goes about speaking to anyone and everyone who will listen, knowing very well that many who know him, know him to be the very same Pharisee who was persecuting the early followers of Jesus.

It’s St. Paul’s public conversion that leads him – in today’s passage of his Letter to the Corinthians – to speak about the humility that believers – like you and I – must have to follow Jesus Christ. St. Paul even declares that the followers of Christ must have such faith as to believe that Jesus will provide for their very needs in their own poverty because Christ Himself became ‘poor’ that we might become ‘rich;’ clothed in royalty as adopted sons and daughters of God, the Father!

It’s this ‘royalty’ that all Christians share through Baptism, and they must therefore share this ‘Good News’ with all the world. In fact, we can begin to imagine that Jairus, his daughter, and all his family became early disciples of Christ and members of the early Christian Church, likely even loosing or leaving his position as a synagogue official.

Yet, as much as Jairus, and even St. Paul, are true intercessors and examples for us, we still have one ‘little one’ among us who ‘gave her life’ to build the faith of the Church: Little Christina Dangond. Like St. Paul, Little Christina spread the faith far and wide, constantly ‘building up the faith,’ most especially of those who were seriously ill – like Jairus’ daughter – or just everyday folks like you and me, by her ‘trustful’ manner of declaring: “Jesus, I Trust in You!”

Beautifully, we can all say – of those of us privileged to know her – that through Christina’s ‘poverty’ of spirit, we received more of the Spirit to strengthen our own faith in Christ, the Son of God! May Little Christina receive the just reward of the greatest of saints like St. Paul, like all who urge us on to the one, true goal: Heaven; and may each of us be even more determined to ‘Build the Faith,’ so that many generations will come to know Jesus and His healing power in their lives!