Most Reverend José H. Gomez Archbishop of Los Angeles
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels June 30, 2024
My brothers and sisters in Christ,1
The Gospel passage that we just heard talks to us about how Jesus was taking care of the people that came to him. We just heard about a woman that was sick and she was cured. And also a family story — both scenes touch our hearts in a special way.
So often in the Gospels we hear these stories about mothers and fathers, sons and daughters.
And today we have the especially that story of a synagogue official called Jairus. And as we heard, he comes to Jesus and he is scared and desperate, because his 12-year-old daughter is dying.
I think we all can feel the man’s pain and his fear. We all know what it’s like to be frightened and to be asking God for his help, in different situations in our personal lives.
I think we can feel the man’s pain and his fear.
Even though there was a large crowd there, this man doesn’t care what other people might think, his daughter is in trouble and he will do anything to try to get her help. He has only one hope, and that is Jesus. So, as we heard, he falls on his knees at Jesus’ feet and he begs Jesus to save his daughter.
We can hear the emotion in the man’s words, as he tells Jesus: “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.”
So, we understand that this father is suffering. And it is a suffering that many mothers and fathers know, when they have that awful feeling that there’s nothing they can do to help their kids.
And as we heard, just as the man reaches Jesus, he receives the word that his daughter has died. But this doesn’t stop Jesus.
The Gospel passage is filled with little details — all the commotion of the crowd outside the man’s house, the sounds of weeping and wailing, the words that Jesus speaks.
And we see the care and the tenderness of Jesus. He knows the grief that the father and mother are feeling but he tells them their child is not dead, but only sleeping. And he says, he tells them: “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
So it is a beautiful, powerful passage of the Gospel. And it is beautiful to see how Jesus takes the hand of the child, and we hear about how the little girl gets up and starts walking.
Again, it is a beautiful story of a family who has faith in Jesus and is delivered from sickness and death.
So it is lesson for us today that is Jesus has power over disease and death.
Our first reading today, from the Book of Wisdom, tells us that, “God did not make death … For God formed man to be imperishable … But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world.”
My dear brothers and sisters, this is the truth. All the sickness and disease in the world, the scourge of death — this was not how God intended his creation. Death only entered our world because of human sin.
But God made us for life, God made us for love! This is what Jesus is showing us today. By his death on the cross, Jesus destroyed the power of death so we don’t have to be afraid of death.2
Those words that Jesus speaks to the father today, he speaks them also to us. “Do not be afraid, just have faith.”
So my brothers and sisters, there is no need to be afraid of sickness or death. If we believe in him, if we believe in his power, Jesus will set us free from these things.
So we ask for that grace today, to stay close to Jesus, to trust in his promises.
We can walk with confidence in our lives — confident in the power of Jesus, in the love of Jesus for each one of us. And in the truths of the Gospel.
When we pray, for ourselves or for our loved ones, we can be sure that Jesus is listening to us. So we need to have faith, just like that father and mother in the Gospel, we need to have their humility, their willingness to do anything to bring their child before Jesus.
Because as we can see, Jesus has compassion for us as he had for that family. Jesus understands that sometimes we go through difficult times, that we have suffering and pain. But he does not leave us. Because he has won the victory over death, he can help us to overcome any challenge that we have in our lives.
St. Paul tells us in the second reading that the coming of Jesus into the world is “a gracious act.”
Jesus has given his life, so that we might have life.
But St. Paul also reminds us that we should respond to God’s gifts by giving ourselves to serve others in need.
He tells us in the second reading of today’s Mass: “Your abundance at the present time should supply their needs, so that their abundance may also supply your needs.”
It is a beautiful way to think about how we are called to live. Giving to others who are in need, giving ourselves in doing works of healing and love. Making little acts of mercy and forgiveness.
So let us keep reflecting on the beautiful reality that God is asking us to have faith and God is always there for us.
So let us go to Mary, our Blessed Mother, the Health of the Sick.
May Our Lady intercede for us and help us to have that same strong faith as the family in the Gospel today. May we grow more and more in confidence in the power of Jesus to help us to “get well and live.”
1. Readings: Wisd. 1:13–15; 2:23–24; Ps. 20:2, 4–6; 11–13; 2 Cor. 8:7, 9, 13–15; Mark 5:21–43. 2. Heb. 2:14–15.