Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24 / 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15 / Mark 5:21-43
By now, we would have gotten quite used to staying at home, although it is not by choice but by circumstances.
Staying at home may not be as exciting as going out and socializing with others, but we still can make the best out of it.
We can spend all the time watching movie after movie but that would make us become like movie zombies.
Or we may wish to revive that traditional habit of reading books. If we had done literature in school, we may still have a collection of those books that were used, books like “The Merchant of Venice”, “Far from the maddening crowd”, “Tom Brown's schooldays”, “The Count of Monte Cristo”.
At that time, those books were read to pass the exams. But it would certainly be good and enlightening to re-read those books.
A good read would be “A Tale of Two Cities”. Reading it in school then and reading it now is certainly different in terms of perspectives and insights.
The opening lines are about opposing dualities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity”, and that sets the stage for the rest of the book and the unfolding of its characters.
The book has themes of contrasting dualities like reellion and revolution on one hand, and restoration and resurrection on the other. Indeed, the title of the book is often used to express differing fortunes.
In the gospel, it is not “A Tale of Two Cities”, but a story of two persons of different status.
One was a synagogue official by the name of Jairus, while the other was a woman who was not named.
Though both were of different status, bothhad something in common. They had a need, a desperate need.
The daughter of Jairus was desperately sick and he came before Jesus and fell at His feet and pleaded with Jesus go and cure his daughter and to save her life.
The woman who was not named was suffering from haemorrhage for 12 years and was desperately looking for a cure.
But instead of coming before Jesus, she came up behind Him to touch His clothes, believing that if she could do that she would be well again.
Although it was like a story-within-a-story, it was also a story of two persons, with different status, with different approaches, but bound by a common desperate need, and eventually they were rewarded for their faith in the saving power of Jesus.
The story of Jairus and the woman with the haemorrhage, is truly a good read and it is the story of our times and a story about ourselves.
No matter of what status or how famous we are, no matter what abilities or achievements we had, no matter how healthy or how strong we are, we must realize this by now.
And that is we are not “A Tale of Two Cities”, it is not about us and them, it is not even about you and me.
It is about us, we who are bound by a common circumstance, we who are bound by a common need, and particularly for us, who are bound by a common faith.
Like Jairus, we too come before Jesus on our knees to pray for God's protection and blessings, not just for ourselves but also for those who are drastically affected by the current circumstances.
We are bound to pray for people who are like the woman who had haemorrhage. She represents those who can't book for Mass because of one reason or another. We are duty-bound to pray for them too.
We pray for those who like the daughter of Jairus, who have lost everything and also lost the meaning of life, that God will give them something to hope for.
Yes, the salvation of many depends on the sacrifice of a few, and we are called to make that sacrifice and to make it with a faith like that of Jairus and the woman with the haemorrhage.
When we make that sacrifice for others with faith, then we will understand those last words of the book “A Tale of Two Cities” when that character Sydney Carton said this: It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done. It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I ever known.
Let our prayer for the good of others be our sacrifice of faith, and may Jesus also grant us our needs.
This is best thing that we could ever do for others and for ourselves.