Before Vatican II we sometimes heard a sermon instead of a homily. A sermon could be whatever the preacher wanted to talk about while a homily has to be a reflection on the readings or the Mass. A sermon I recall from my childhood days was delivered one hot muggy Sunday morning. After reading the gospel, the pastor simply said, “If you think it is hot in here, remember it is hotter in hell.”
We have no clue what hell will be like. Many imagine hell to be a flaming inferno while others presume hell to be cold and barren like the surface of Mars. Whatever hell is doesn’t matter. What matters is that God won’t be there but the devil will be, along with those who “belong to his company.”
Likewise, we don’t know what heaven will be like, yet we believe that in the end our destiny will be one of these two places. We ultimately decide where we will spend eternity. One moment we may very much want to be with God and our loved ones in heaven. The next moment, we could be lured by the devil to turn away from God and commit a grave sin.
The readings deal with death, sin and immortality. Hardly a day goes by without being reminded that death can come at any time. Because death is often dreaded, even Jesus sidesteps the matter when he insists that the girl was asleep, not dead.
When expressing their condolences, some people say that a person’s death must be God’s will. To say that suggests that God does evil things. As the Book of Wisdom tells us, God did not make death nor does God rejoice in the destruction of the living. Rather, God formed us to be imperishable; we have the capability to transcend mortality and live forever with God. As we heard, death entered the world by the envy of the devil. Consequently, all creatures do die. Yet God created us with the innate desire to live forever and ever. Yes, life is precarious but we know that death is not the end but our transition to eternal life.
Being omnipotent, God knows everything, but obviously doesn’t control all things since we have free will. While God knows the moment of our death, God does not set its time or manner, fate does. Countless accidents and mass shootings convince me that God does not decide how we will die.
In the gospel we found a child grasping for life. We would do the same if we were in her situation. Who among us if seriously ill wouldn’t chase after every means, medically and spiritually, to be healed? Would we go the extra mile that Jairus, her father, did? He had faith that Jesus would heal his daughter. A faith that saves is based on the act of coming to Jesus even in the face of public ridicule. Faith in who Jesus is and what he can do prompted Jairus to act, giving him the courage to approach Jesus utterly convinced that he could indeed cure his daughter.
Jairus’ humble petition made visible the faith to which others, including us, are being called. Simply put, faith is the act of actively seeking Jesus. Faith is based on the Latin word for trust. Do we trust Jesus to be there in our time of need? Jairus did and that saved his daughter. So do many who seek to be anointed when they are ill or facing surgery.
Death, debilitating illnesses, and chronic medical conditions shatter any illusion of our control over life. The tenuousness and fragility of life prompts us to follow the example of Jairus to turn to Jesus with nothing but utter faith. Do we have the faith to touch and be touched by Jesus when the need arises?
When we turn to Jesus for healing, what he offers may not always be what we are seeking. Our illness may not be cured, but we receive the grace to live with it. Some day, we will take our last breath and cross the threshold of death. When we do, what lies ahead? If we are seeking Jesus, our faith teaches us that heaven awaits us and he will say to us, “I say to you, arise!” By seeking Jesus, we transcend our mortality to live forever in his presence. When that happens, we will praise Jesus for rescuing us from the bleakness of hell.
On the other hand, if we aren’t consciously seeking Jesus, allowing our faith to become complacent, we might find ourselves numbered among those in the company of the devil. Before we give into the devil’s sly message that God doesn’t care, we must recall the assuring words of Jesus, “Do not be afraid, just have faith,” for he, not the devil, assures us we will live forever.
St. Ignatius provides us with useful advice: “We must work as if everything depends on us, but we must pray as if everything depends on God.”