13B18. Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24. “God did not make death nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.” God did not create death but only life. Death entered the world through the sinful disobedience of Adam and Eve (Romans 5:12). “God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him.” He made us to be his sons and daughters in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:27), living forever happily with him.

Mark 5:21-43. Jairus pleads, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.” Despite the report that the daughter has died, Jesus says, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” Jesus goes and tells her to arise and she does. Jesus gives her physical health as a sign to all that he wishes to give us the health that is eternal, called holiness. He is the God that robs death of its power to be the eternal termination of life. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:52b: “For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 15:54c-55: “Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?”

The woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years says to herself, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” “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?’” Although he was jostled about in the crowd and many people were rubbing up against him, none had done so with the faith to be cured at that moment. Her faith had released the curative energy from Jesus without Jesus even knowing who had done it. The power of faith is that we hand ourselves to the power of God. The God who created us to be loved by him and to live in his love forever is the God who will give only good things to those who wish to live in his love. In Matthew 7:11 Jesus says, “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.”

2 Corinthians 5:21-43. Apparently, expecting Jesus to return soon after his ascension into heaven to end the world and take all who believed in him to heaven, the Christians in Jerusalem sold all they had, shared the proceeds with one another and waited for the Second Coming of the Lord. When the Lord did not come, they were living in abysmal poverty. In this Sundays’ second reading, Paul makes an appeal to the Corinthians to support the Christians in Jerusalem. Basically Paul is saying be generous as Jesus was generous, giving his life for us. You who have much should give to those who have nothing so that both of you should have something. This message blends in with the other two readings in that God is the generous giver who gives good things to those in need, even health to the sick and life to the dead. Live in the goodness of God!