13th Sunday of the Year B

I’ve spoken to you before, I think, about ‘Marcan sandwiches,’ the not very academic-sounding term used by Scripture scholars to describe the kind of thing we saw in today’s Gospel story. It refers to a number of passages in his Gospel where the St Mark begins one story, in this case the story of Jairus’s daughter, seems to digress into another, the story of the woman with the haemorrhage, and then returns to the story he had started with to bring it to a conclusion. And this has nothing to do with his being sidetracked or distracted. It’s done very deliberately, the whole point being that these are not two separate stories at all, but one story made up of three parts. The little girl and the woman are not two different people. They are the same person at different stages in life, and, as such, they are each one of us. And so, with this in mind, I offer for your consideration the following interpretation of this profound passage.

And the first thing I invite you to consider is that the so-called ‘sickness’ the little girl is suffering from is not a real sickness at all. What’s happening, I suggest, is that she is moving from childhood to adolescence – she is twelve after all - and her father doesn’t like it. It can be very difficult for any parent to watch a son or daughter enter those difficult teenage years. The loss of that so attractive childlike innocence; the loss of physical closeness and the ability to show affection; the having to watch a child’s capacity to play and delight in simple things give way to the boorishness and awkwardness of the teenage years, are all very painful for a loving parent, and, in this sense, the father in our story, Jairus by name, is experiencing the death of the little girl he has known up to now as she turns into a woman with all that that is going to mean for her in the future. At which point part one our story ends, we fast forward a number of years, to find that our little girl has become the woman with the haemorrhage. So what has happened to her?

Well, life has happened to her, as it happens to each one of us. Her years of innocence and childhood over, she has been worn out by the trials and tribulations which make up any person’s life. There have been deaths and illnesses to face, children to bring up, relationships which have turned sour and it’s clearly a long time since she has known real happiness. She hasn’t laughed properly for years and the ability she had in such abundance as a little girl, the ability to run and jump and enjoy things, the ability to play, seems dead in her. And I would suggest that this loss of the capacity to play is especially true of women. The women in the old separated and divorced group, still one of the best groups I have ever been part of, used to say of men that ‘ they’re aye playin’ at somethin. If it’s no fitba, it’s golf; if it’s no golf it’s derts; and if it’s no derts is snooker.’ And, of course they were right. But this capacity to play is a strength in men, not a weakness, the real tragedy being that, in so many women, burdened with the responsibility of caring for the physical needs of a family from an early age, the capacity to play dies, leaving men, so often, to do the playing with the children while women iron, cook or clean the toilet. And this, I suggest, is what has happened to this woman. In her own person she represents the very worst that events can do to us, men and women. Her energy for life, her energy for fun and enjoyment, her energy above all for play have drained away and she is deeply unhappy. In which condition she comes to Jesus. And so we come to part three of our story.

And in this third part we find the key to the whole episode. And it’s where St Mark tells us that Jesus went into the place where the child lay. Jesus knows exactly what’s wrong with this woman and what needs to happen to her. Elsewhere in the Gospels, he tells us that, unless we become like little children, we cannot enter the kingdom of God. And this woman standing before him is a living example of what he means. Jesus is not talking about childishness. Childishness is a quality found in children or in adults who have never grown up. Being childlike is an entirely different thing. It is in many ways the whole purpose of life and not everyone achieves it. It’s to have passed from childhood into adulthood, to have faced all that life can throw at us and emerge at the other side into our wisdom years with our capacity to be thankful, enjoy things and, in the most profound sense of the word ‘play’ still intact.I have quoted before the United States President who said that, ‘for the simplicity that comes before complexity I would not give a fig. But for the simplicity that comes after complexity, I would give you my right arm.’ And that is what today’s Gospel stories are about. As Jesus looks at the woman he sees, not an old woman, but the child in her who has fallen asleep. Those around him laugh and say that the child is dead and that nothing can bring her back to life again; that the woman has been so exhausted and damaged by life that all the doctors in the world could not cure her. But for Jesus, that is never true, not for her and not for us. The child in us is not dead either. He or she is only asleep. There are two kinds of old people; those who have come to terms with all that has happened and, despite it all, are fundamentally grateful for their lives. And then there are those who end up bitter and resentful, impossible to please and never happy. And if we are to avoid becoming the second, it’s vitally important that we nourish the child in us - as Jesus says, give her something to eat – and make sure that we never lose that childlike capacity to enjoy, to dance, to laugh and to play.

And we have a particular opportunity to do that at this time of the year. Whether you stay at home or go away somewhere this summer, give the child in you room to breathe. Play, dance, laugh, have fun, do silly things, enjoy yourself, and, if you do, I promise you, you will not be far from the kingdom of God.


BIDDING PRAYERS


This week’s first reading from the book of Wisdom contains an extraordinarily beautiful and positive view of the world. ‘Death’ it says, ‘was not God’s doing, he takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living...the world’s created things have health in them, in them no fatal poison is found...This positive, deeply optimistic view of creation is fundamental to our Catholic tradition, and we ask God to stir in us today a deep sense of this truth....Lord hear us

Sadly, not everyone sees the world in this way. For many sad and disappointed individuals, nothing is ever good enough. No matter what others do, they are wrong. The past was always better. Everything that happens is seen through negative and critical eyes. The child in them appears dead and with it their capacity to enjoy God’s world the way they once did when they were young. And so we ask God to protect us all from this tragic outcome to our lives.......Lord hear us

There are many people, of course, for whom life has been particularly hard, and it is not all surprising that they feel angry, depressed or unfairly treated sometimes. Faith in God does not stop bad things happening and there is no guarantee whatsoever that life will be fair. Some seem to have things relatively easy while others go from one crisis to another. And so we pray for those in the community who have a hard road to travel, that God will give them the strength they need..............Lord hear us

The little girl in today’s Gospel was on the verge of adolescence, a potentially difficult and stressful time for all concerned. But it is also a time of immense growth and development, a time filled with great possibilities, which requires patience and tolerance from all concerned. And so we pray for families struggling with this challenging moment in their lives. We pray especially for parents who, like Jairus, are grieving for a child who is moving away from them for a time............Lord hear us

The greatest pain of all, however, is the real loss of a child who dies. There is no experience quite like it, whether the child in question is two, twenty two or sixty two. And so we pray for all in the community who live day after day, year after year, with this unique pain. We pray that those around will be sensitive to the ache which accompanies them wherever they go and never fall into the trap of thinking that, with the passage of the years, they will have got over it...............Lord hear us

And as the school year ends and people begin to go on holiday, we pray that this summer, whether home or away, will be a deeply spiritual experience for us all: that it will be a time of fun and laughter; a time for eating and drinking with friends; a time for appreciating the beauty of creation as well as the beauty of things made by human hands; a time for music and dancing; so that the child in each of us can come alive and learn to play again in the midst of God’s beautiful world.......... Lord hear us