The Gift of Life and the Power of Faith

The readings for the thirteenth Sunday of the Ordinary time invite us to reﬂect on the precious gift of life and the transformative power of faith. God’s original plan from the very beginning is “to fashion all things that they might have being” (First Reading), since God “formed man to be imperishable as he is made according to His (imperishable) image. Man, therefore, is made for life from the beginning for he participates in the imperishable life of the Father. Death is not God’s creation. It is man’s attempt to breach his relationship with the eternal God. Life, therefore, is a relationship with God. To be un-related, disconnected and disunited with the source of life, that is God, is to experience death.

This biblical insight that life is to be with God is validated by the presence of sickness and death in the two episodes of healing and coming to life again in the Gospel. The woman in hemorrhages for many years began to experience healing and restoration of her life when she made an act of faith—her moral and existential connection with Jesus who is God. The dying daughter of Jairus was given life through the act of desperate faith of her father, Jairus. In both cases, the restoration of health and life were not just mere biological or physical reality. It is intrinsically, a religious reality where human existence is inseparably defined with its God-orientedness and God-relatedness. Being the only eternal one, continuity of life in creatures is but a participation in the divine life of God. It is the act of faith that man participates in eternal life: “He who believes in me will never die.” (Jn. 1 1 :26)

The readings, therefore, encourage us to reﬂect on how our act of faith in God is effective. The act of faith of the sick woman and Jairus were characteristically daring that overcomes human conventions and cultural boundaries. They did not hold back nor were intimidated. They went straight into the heart of Jesus. But such courage of faith is motivated by their unconditional trust on Jesus’ goodness and power. Goodness, because no evil can conquer it. Power, because He is sovereign over all. We don’t unleash the power of Jesus because we are not willing to let go of our own power, we hold tight on our control on the situations, and we heavily rely on our own selﬁsh conﬁdence in dire situations of our lives. Only when we reach the humble acknowledgment and recognition of our limit, that we witness the limitless bountifulness of the divine. Only when we reach the apex of all human hopes, that divine hope begins to manifest. Only when we hit rock bottom of our helplessness can we create a condition for the emergence of spring of water.

Let us remember that even in the most desperate situations of human life as even in death—there is power of transformation in one who always BELIEVE.