Jesus encounters fear in two persons he meets along his journey. One is a woman who fears being detected in public. She is stricken with a persistent flow of blood and to be in public is to be threatened with harm. The woman faces her fear. She risks a dangerous move. In a crowd, she reaches out to Jesus, and is healed. Next, Jesus meets a father who fears his daughter is sick unto death. He tells all the crowd gathered, “Do not be afraid; have faith.” Jesus heals the man’s daughter.
Fear is natural; fear of physical harm, fear of the loss of loved ones. As human beings we are each of us fragile; able to be hurt in so many ways. Our connecting with each other helps heal us of our fragility. Love is natural too. We are made for each other. We will face our fears and we will take risks to be faithful in loving and healing ourselves and others. There are people presently being made to fear for their very lives because they are Latino or Muslim or gay or poor. They are facing their fears and are taking risks in love. They need their brothers and sisters to do the same and to help them heal of the hurt. Like the woman in the Gospel with the flow of blood, we are risking reaching out into the crowd. We are willing to endure the threats and harm of public life. How can we help heal those who are consumed by fear but cannot risk reaching out? How can we help heal those who fear Latinos, even children, and put them in jail? How can we help heal those who fear stereotyped Muslim terrorism and fundamentalism? How can we help heal those who out of fear reject their shared human fragility? They reject love in favor of domination. Domination provides those filled with fear a feeling of control. Domination gives the insecure a feeling of security. Those who dominate others may claim to be Christian. However in their fear, they are being unfaithful to Christ, “Do not be afraid; have faith.” They are, because they fear, unable to act as a healing power. Conservatives like to joke that if you want to turn a compassionate person into a conservative you need only do one thing – scare them. But they are proving conservatives live from fear. Can we turn a conservative into a disciple. It seems we need only do one thing – heal them.
Let us act as a healing power with those who claim they are Christian but live lives of fear instead.
Prayer: Spirit, help us take risks.
Question: Who are the conservatives with whom I engage that I could help heal their fear?
July 1, 2018 Gospel Mark 5:21-43 Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time