Deacon’s Beacon: Faith in Action
Our Need for Faith
In last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus and His disciples are in a boat, sailing across the Sea of Galilee. As a violent storm comes up, Jesus is in the stern of the boat, asleep. The disciples are terrified and wake Jesus. Jesus says to the wind and storm, “Quiet! Be still!”
Then He looks at the disciples and says, “Do you not yet have faith?”
Although this is a relatively early story in Mark’s gospel, Jesus was amazed at the disciples’ lack of faith. Without faith, we can accomplish very little. That was true for the disciples – and it’s just as true for us today. However, today’s gospel has two wonderful examples of faith in Jesus as the Son of God.
Our Faith in God Overcomes our Fears
In today’s gospel, Jesus and His disciples are on land and a crowd is following Him. A synagogue official named Jairus approaches Jesus and asks Him to come and heal his daughter, who is near death. As He continues on the journey to heal the dying daughter, a woman touches Jesus’ robe. He turns around to see who had touched Him. The woman approaches Jesus, who looks at the woman and says, your faith has saved you.”
Then the gospel returns to the original story about Jairus’ daughter. When Jesus arrives at the house, He is told that the daughter has already died. He responds that she is not dead, merely sleeping. The crowd does not believe and ridicules Jesus. But Jesus, along with the parents, enters her room and says to her, “I say to you, arise.” The girl immediately arose and walked around. Jairus’ faith saves his daughter’s life.
The contrasts between Jairus and the woman are stark – one is a male public official; the other was an unknown woman who was a social outcast. One approaches Jesus publicly, the other approaches secretly. Yet each makes an act of faith affirming Jesus as Son of God.
As our gospel ends, and Jesus was leaving, He says “tell no one about this.” I think that Jesus is saying that each of us must make our own act of faith, acknowledging Him as Son of God.
How do we make our act of Faith?
As we hear in our gospel readings, there are many different ways. We need to pray and ask ourselves, what is God calling us to do – some will be called to active involvement in some of many different ministries. Others may be called to more prayerful ministries. As St. Paul tells us – “There is one body, but it has many parts…we are part of the body of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12). What part of the Body of Christ are we? One place to start looking is in
The Corporal Works of Mercy
- Feed the hungry
- Give drink to the thirsty
- Shelter the homeless
- Visit the sick
- Visit prisoners
- Bury the dead
- Give to the poor
Our Faith in Action: Respect Life from womb to natural death.
OLW offers many opportunities for us to participate (except #5 which requires special training). As coordinator of the Care & Outreach ministries, I would like to offer some thoughts:
We feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty through St. Mark’s, P.A.D.S. and other ministries.
Shelter the homeless through P.A.D.S. and others. Visit the sick through various Ministries of Care programs. Bury the dead through various Bereavement and Grief Support. Give to the poor through St. Vincent DePaul and others.
For more information on these and other Care & Outreach ministries, please contact me at: irenetomc@hotmail.com
Tags: #deaconsbeacon, #deacontom, #ministry, #olwparish
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