Posted on 07/10/2023 9:47:41 AM PDT by MurphsLaw
Matthew 9:18-26
Friends, in today’s Gospel,
Jesus demonstrates his miraculous power to heal the sick and raise the dead.
He cured a woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years
who came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak.
And he took the hand of the official’s daughter
and raised her from the sleep of death.
Christianity is, first and foremost,
a religion of the concrete and not the abstract.
It takes its power not from a general religious consciousness,
not from an ethical conviction, not from a comfortable abstraction,
but from the person of Jesus Christ.
It is Christ—in his uncompromising call to repentance,
his unforgettable gestures of healing,
his unique and disturbing praxis of forgiveness,
his provocative nonviolence,
and especially his movement from godforsaken death to shalom-radiating Resurrection—
that moves the believer to change of life and gift of self.
And it is the unique Christ—depicted vividly in the poetry of Dante,
the frescoes of Michelangelo, the sermons of Augustine,
the stained-glass windows of the Sainte Chapelle,
and the sacred ballet of the liturgy—
who speaks transformatively to hearts and souls across the Christian centuries.
When Jesus arrived at the official's house
and saw the flute players and the crowd who were making a commotion,
he said, ""Go away! The girl is not dead but sleeping.""
And they ridiculed him.
When the crowd was put out, he came and took her by the hand,
and the little girl arose.
And news of this spread throughout all that land.+++
Amen 🙏🏻!!!!
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