Doing
Our Part
From today's readings:
"By the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to
his company experience it.... Sing praise to the LORD, you His faithful ones,
and give thanks to His holy name.... May you excel in this gracious act also....
Do not be afraid; just have faith!"
In general, our noisy and hectic world
can make it hard to think straight sometimes, and thus peace and quiet are rare
and prized commodities in our day. And yet, even so, there are times when
stillness can be alarming, as when a pulse is so faint it can hardly be felt.
The same dangerous extremes can be
observed in the spiritual life. Consider first the detriment of noise and
commotion: In the Gospel reading, as Jesus makes His way to Jairus' house, He
is surrounded by a chaotic crowd. Now we can presume these were good people,
for they evidently wanted to be close to Jesus and follow Him. But, by and
large, they were meshed in a mob mentality, and they were caught up in the
emotion of the moment, and probably just looking for a little excitement - that's
why they were pressing on Jesus! Not because they sought to know Him
personally, not because they were listening much to His words of life, not
because they were open to His sacrificial love for each of them, not because
they had any intention of following Him for more than a few blocks - none of
those good reasons were driving the throng to follow Jesus, but simply because
there was a crowd, and the rabble wanted to be part of the crowd, and hang out
with the crowd, and so that particular day, they happened to crowd around
Jesus.
But in the midst of the multitude,
there's one person who manages to tune out the din and think and act clearly
and deliberately. So the woman with the hemorrhage approaches Jesus, not just
to be in the "in" crowd, but because she recognizes His saving power,
and so she touches Him in faith. Streams of people are physically brushing
against Jesus, but just in the non-personal way that you or I might
unintentionally bump into another in a crowded concourse. Only one elevates the
encounter to the level of personal contact. As St.
Augustine said, "Multitudes are they who throng about Him, but few are
they who by faith touch Him." And yet what a difference it made for that
woman, and for all who want to do more than just crowd around Jesus, those who
recognize His saving power, and touch Him in faith!
And it's the same story with the next
miracle: Jesus arrives at the official's house, and there's this commotion of
weeping and wailing, people too caught up in their own sorrow to even listen to
the Lord's good news, "She's just asleep!" So Jesus puts them all
out, so that finally His own words can be clearly heard and felt: "Talitha
koum!" In our lives too, Jesus insists that you and I take action, and put
out the distractions of our lives, especially on Sunday and in our daily
prayers, so that His words of life can be clearly heard and felt....
Yes, we need to do our part too, and
that insight returns us to the second danger, for not only do people fail in
Christian discipleship when misled by chaotic distractions, but also when
paralyzed with morbid inaction. This is a form of the sin of presumption, and
the heresy of quietism, which perhaps is more prevalent in our day than most
realize. "I'll just let God do it all. If I don't get around to daily
prayers, if I miss going to Church on Sunday, if I don't bother to read the
Bible or study my faith, if I just ignore my pastors, if I worry more about
sports scores than I do about eternal salvation, well, God's big enough to
handle all that stuff without my help."
But, quoting St. Augustine again, "God who made you
without your cooperation, will not save you without your cooperation." The
Lord is too polite to bodily force us to be with Him, so if we decide to crowd
Him out of our lives, He doesn't compel us to make room for Him. Are you
content with crass "Crowd Christianity," following Jesus every once
in a while for a short distance when you're in the mood and there's promise of
a little excitement? But that's not enough! You can't just drift with the crowd
that hangs out occasionally with Jesus - you need to make a personal
commitment, and hang on religiously to Jesus, like the woman who touched the
Lord in fullness of faith!
When we hang on faithfully to Jesus, His
power touches us, and transforms us. And then there's so much we learn from His
words and actions. Did you ever consider, for instance, that if Jesus could
raise Jairus' daughter from the dead, He certainly could have raised her with a
full stomach as well? And yet, after the miracle, Jesus told her parents to
give her something to eat, saying, in effect, "I will do My part, but you
still need to do your part!" That's what Jesus tells each of us today: He
will do His part, but you and I also need to do our parts!