The Happy Priest: The Encounter with Jesus is the Greatest Gift. Arise and Live!

Have no fear of allowing Jesus to enter into your life.  Do not fear the most exciting, most joyful and the most powerful relationship known to the human person. Jesus does not want us to live a life of sadness.  He does not want us to wallow in doubt, frustration and uncertainty.  He wants us to live.  He takes the hand of Jairus' daughter and says "Talitha koum, which means little girl, I say to you, arise!" (Mark 5: 41). The Lord takes each of us by the hand and tells us to arise.  Arise from your darkness.  Arise from your doubt.  Arise from your despair.  Arise from your pain.  Arise from your sin.  Arise and live!  Jesus wants us to have life. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to open our hearts to him and let him enter in.

CORPUS CHRISTI (Catholic Online) - Christianity is not about a what; rather it is about a whom.  Christianity essentially is about a relationship with the living person, Jesus Christ.  This past Sunday's gospel narrative tells us that faith and courage are indispensable ingredients if we wish to truly encounter the Lord. 

Both Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage who figured in Sunday's reading possess these essential qualities.  For this reason they are truly able to encounter the Lord. 

In the first place, this Sunday's gospel passage illustrates the depth of Jairus' faith and courage with these beautiful words: "One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.  Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, 'My daughter is at the point of death.  Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live'" (Mark 5: 22-23).

Secondly, the woman with the hemorrhage was able to encounter the Lord by touching his cloak.  The crowds were also touching and bumping into the Lord, but only this woman was really able to touch the Lord.  Her faith and her courage allowed her to truly encounter Jesus. "Jesus aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, 'Who has touched my clothes?'  But his disciples said to Jesus, 'You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'" (Mark 5: 30-31).

Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage truly encountered the Lord.  Because of their faith and their courage, they were able to enter into a personal relationship with him.  The gift of life was the principal fruit of this personal encounter.  Jairus' daughter was raised from the dead and the woman was healed of her affliction.

Let us recall the words from this Sunday's Old Testament reading: "God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.  For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is not a destructive drug among them nor any domain of the netherworld on earth, for justice is undying" (Wisdom 1: 13-15). 

This Sunday's liturgy reminded us of Jesus' words in the Gospel of John: "I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full" (John 10: 10).

Jesus wants us to have life.  He wants us to be happy.  He wants us to have the best possible life here on earth.  He wants to fill us with his divine life, sanctifying grace, so that we may enter into his joy.  He wants us to experience his peace.  He wants us to be with him in eternal life in heaven.  He only wants the best for us.  This is why he wants us to open our hearts to him and let him enter in.

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Have no fear of allowing Jesus to enter into your life.  Do not fear the most exciting, most joyful and the most powerful relationship known to the human person. 

"So often today man does not know what is within him, in the depths of his mind and heart. So often he is uncertain about the meaning of his life on this earth. He is assailed by doubt, a doubt which turns into despair.  We ask you therefore, we beg you with humility and trust, let Christ speak to man. He alone has words of life, yes, of eternal life" (Pope John Paul the Great, homily, October 22, 1978).

We are made by God to live for ever.  We have been given the gift of an immortal soul.  "For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him" (Wisdom 2: 23). 

Jesus does not want us to live a life of sadness.  He does not want us to wallow in doubt, frustration and uncertainty.  He wants us to live.  He takes the hand of Jairus' daughter and says "Talitha koum, which means little girl, I say to you, arise!" (Mark 5: 41). 

The Lord takes each of us by the hand and tells us to arise.  Arise from your darkness.  Arise from your doubt.  Arise from your despair.  Arise from your pain.  Arise from your sin.  Arise and live! 

My dear friends, the same Jesus that raised Jairus' daughter from the dead; the same Jesus that healed the woman with a hemorrhage is truly, really with us.  In every tabernacle, in every Catholic Church, this same Jesus is truly and really present. 

When we genuflect before the tabernacle, we fall to the ground in adoration just as Jairus did more than two thousand years ago.  When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we encounter the Lord even in a more profound way than did the sick woman or Jairus' daughter. 

The woman touched the Lord's cloak, and the Lord held the little girl's hand.  But, when we receive Jesus in Holy Communion Jesus comes into our body and soul.  He takes possession of our entire being.

What intimacy!  What love!  This is why we must receive Holy Communion in the state of grace.  Mortal sin ruptures our union with Jesus.  When we are in mortal sin, in effect we join the crowd in Jairus' house in ridiculing Jesus. 

We have been given the gift of immortal life.  The easiest and most efficacious way to gain eternal life in Heaven, and to participate in Heaven here on earth is to live our lives centered on the Eucharist and to always make good use of the Sacrament of Confession.  Never live in mortal sin because mortal sin is death. 

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"There is no surer pledge or dearer sign of this great hope in the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells, than the Eucharist. Every time this mystery is celebrated, the work of our redemption is carried on and we break the one bread that provides the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live for ever in Jesus Christ" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1405). 

Daily Mass, frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and frequent Confession; here we find the most practical and efficacious means to encounter the Lord, live a life filled with joy and peace, and persevere in this life in order to live eternally with the Lord Jesus in heaven. 

"You have turned my mourning into dancing, you have stripped off my sackcloth and wrapped me in gladness; and now my heart, silent no longer, will play you music; Yahweh, my God, I will praise you for ever" (Psalm 30: 11-12).

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Father James Farfaglia is the Pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Corpus Christi, TX.  Visit him on the web at www.fatherjames.org.

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