Word of the Week

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Arise: Egeiro (Gk.): meaning, “to arouse, cause to rise”. The Aramaic term behind the Greek conveys an “arousal from sleep”. In antiquity, sleep was a euphemism for biological death.

Christ’s Resurrection ushered in a new family, and with it a new era of grace in which we arise into the Trinity, the family of God, by way of the Holy Spirit and faith (CCC, 505). This initial rising up into God ought to be nurtured in prayer. God initiates prayer as a gift, and Jesus, who first seeks us out, thirsts for our souls. “It is his asking that arises from the depths of God's desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him” (CCC 2560).

Egeiro, the same Greek term applied to each Resurrection account (Mt.28:6-7; Mk.16:14; Lk.24:6; Jn.21;14), can be found 141 times in the New Testament. This Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time affords us the opportunity to examine the importance of the words of Christ to Jairus’ daughter who had fallen asleep, Talitha Cumi, which means, “little girl, I say to you arise” (Mk.541). These words to the 12-year-old little girl highlight the very real event that took place some 2000 years ago in which Christ raised a girl from the dead, and at the same time prompts an anticipation of our own arising from the slumber of our fallen nature into the restored nature of Christ. To live in Christ is to live in hope. To live in hope is to offer others Christ. How do we do this? Our second reading from this Sunday aids in tackling this question.

In Paul’s second epistle to the Church of Corinth, we have an account of the apostle to the gentiles encouraging others to be generous with the blessings that God has given them (2 Cor.8:7-15). Paul reminds the Corinthians that economic prosperity is a blessing from God and that we ought to be generous with our riches that we might alleviate another’s burden. In addition, Paul reminds us that in sharing our wealth we participate in Christ’s own generosity. Just as Christ became poor to share his wealth (divinity) with man so are we to participate in this sharing by offering our own prosperity (material riches) with man (Hahn and Minch, 64-65). A disposition of gratitude sees all things in light of the Giver, and never ceases to give. Such a heart for Christ awakens others to the goodness of Christ and open hearts to the heart of Christ. Man has been charged to intercede on behalf of his brother or sister in Christ in both spiritual and material needs.

In closing, I return to the story of Jairus’ daughter. It is with great sadness that I watch so many youth fall to the pressures of the secular world, ultimately feeling abandoned by Christ. Christ demands that we give them our attention. The raising of the little girl ought to be an encouragement for our youth to know that Christ’s victory over death includes them as well. Just as the 12-year-old experiences natural change and begins a new stage of physical development, inversely, the 12-year-old experiences supernatural change in Confirmation and begins a new stage of maturation in God’s grace. As parents and friends of our youth, we need to encourage them to grow in holiness.

Let us ask the hard questions. Are we making the necessary efforts to alleviate the pain of our youth? Are we examining how we present our selves to the youth in dress, word, and deed? As we read in today’s gospel, the tears of sorrow turn to tears of joy, because just one awoke from slumber! Let us present the resurrected Christ to our youth that they may awaken from their slumber of deadness to truth, arising as a sign of life and contradiction to the world.

“The story of Jairus' daughter not only speaks about the death of a child and the raising of that young girl back to life, but it also speaks about death of the heart and spirit, a disease that affects so many young people today.”
--Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB.
Primary Texts Consulted

•  Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
•  Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.
• Hahn, Scott and Minch, Curtis. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The First and Second   Letters of Paul to the Corinthinas. RSV, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004.

The Catholic Hour Home Page
Comments or Questions?
Contact Webmaster