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. She reaches out to Jesus, in public, 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 all of us risking to stop out into the threats and harm of public life. How can we help heal those who are consumed by fear but who cannot face it, and will not reach out for healing? How can we help heal those who fear Latinos, even children, and jail them as they flee for their lives? How can we help heal those who fear stereotyped Muslim terrorism and fundamentalism as they spread both from their own religion? How can we help heal those who out of fear reject their shared human fragility and innate desire to be loving and chose domination and hostility instead? Dominance gives those filled with fear such a feeling of control. Dominance gives the insecure such a feeling of security. Those who dominate others and are hostile may claim to be Christian. However in the fear that drives them to both, 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, in other words one who relates in terms of fear into some who is healing instead? Is it the same process in reverse – love them? Can we reach out with love to those who have been manipulated into fearing for their lives?
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 for love.
Question: Who are the conservatives with whom I engage that I could address their fears through love?
July 1, 2018 Gospel Mark 5:21-43 Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time