FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK
Dear St. Mary’s Parishioners,
It may be strange to say this but we were never meant to die. In fact, death is unnatural. We have grown so accustomed to thinking that dying is a part of what it means to be a human being, as if it's part of our nature, like breathing oxygen. Not for us Christians. We have an entirely different way of approaching the “end.” The first reading at Mass this Sunday begins to reveal a deeper reality: “God did not make death”, says the author in the Book of Wisdom. He reveals that this death that strikes fear in the hearts of men was not originally part of God’s plan for us. Could this be why funerals are so painful? We intrinsically desire to be with our loved ones forever. We can even say an echo of eternity burns in each of us, made incarnate in the person that we love. As proof of this, look in awe as a parent holds their newborn child in their arms for the very first time. You can catch a glimpse of this eternity in their eyes. They long to pause this moment, long into perpetuity, perpetually, and preciously. Yet man must frustratingly surrender, sooner or later. He must throw up his arms in defeat, knowing that death will always catch up, regardless of how many fruits and vegetables I eat. Death wins. Or does it?
The first reading continues, “For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him.” There it is again. It’s the secret to the joy of the Christian life. The author again refers back to the original plan of God. We were never meant to die. We desire for eternity because we are created by an eternal God. We’re not simply mindless apes or a byproduct of a cold cosmos. No, we human beings were originally intended to be godlike, to share in the very nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Only when sin entered into the world does death now follow. The pain hounds after us, just as it did to the synagogue official in the Gospel passage that we just heard this Sunday. His daughter is sick, close to death. The eternal love of his father’s heart is breaking. He goes to Jesus, no, he runs to Jesus. He turns to the only one who has power over death itself. He cries out from the depths of his soul just as all the fathers and mothers of history who have faced the daunting, unimaginable tragedy of burying their child: “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her so that she may get well and live.” (Cf. Mark 5:23)
The unnamed “synagogue official” stands in the place of all of us. He is us. We are him. We must turn to Jesus and bring him this pain, otherwise where else can we go? We can’t ignore it. Sure, we can try and numb it with whatever illicit substance we can get our hands on but we all know the darkness always returns. Jesus is the only one with the answer that lasts. “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
(Cf. Mark 5:36). He reassures us. Faith is rooted in trust. Not in our own power and abilities, but in Him and only Him. Only the eternal God can restore eternity in us.Only the eternal God has the audacity to say, “‘Talitha koum!’ which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!’” (Cf. Mark 5:41)
A Slave of Jesus Christ,
Fr. Brian J. Soliven
