iStock/Maria Avvakumova
In our Catholic faith, we are frequently drawn to thinking about life and death. Our entire faith is centered around the death and resurrection of Jesus. Even in our church buildings, a visual centerpiece is the crucifix. We know all of this through faith.
However, when we are confronted with death on a personal level, it can easily impact us down to the very core of who we are. And we see this occur in our Gospel today. Jairus, the synagogue official, receives the most terrible news of his life: “Your daughter has died.” He is entering into pain, anguish and emptiness. Even the people who brought him this terrible news indicate that any hope is truly gone when they ask, “Why trouble the teacher any longer?”
Death seems to have had the final say in the matter. To everyone involved, it appears that the final chapter is written and the book is closed.
But Jesus responds with a curious statement: “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
In that small statement, Jesus teaches this man how to conquer the deepest fear that he has ever experienced. Notice, Jesus does not only simply say, “Do not be afraid.” For if Jesus stopped there, then Jesus would be telling Jarius to use his own power to overcome his fear. But Jesus says to him, “Just have faith.”
In this way, Jesus is teaching him how to respond to fear and how to cast out the fear — through faith in him. And with the power as the Son of God, Jesus raises his daughter from the dead.
This call from Jesus to conquer fear with true faith is not only for Jarius, but is for all of us today. We live in a time when fear seems to be readily available. As the events of the past year-and-a-half unfolded, there were many opportunities for fear, and many remain. It is tempting to give in to fear, and to even say that it is reasonable for us to fear. We are tempted to be like the onlookers who said to Jarius, “Why trouble the teacher any longer?”
It is precisely into these real fears in our lives that Jesus is saying these same words: “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” Jesus is still alive and still working in our lives. While our five senses may tell us that there is reason to fear, we must be called back to the realities of our faith and our relationship with Jesus Christ, who has conquered all things, even death itself.
Back in 2018, Don Briel, the founder and director of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, gave a deathbed interview to Maria Wiering of The Catholic Spirit. In his interview, he was asked about his encounter with one of his nurses, who was surprised at how he handled his diagnosis. The nurse even inquired how a theologian approaches death. Briel responded, “Again I’m struck by the fact that I think so many people are fearful. John Paul II said the 20th century will be remembered not so much for its bloodiness, which was catastrophic, but for fear. And I think so many people are fearful of death largely because they don’t have any sense that there is anything other than the immediacy of the material world. And for me, as for any Christian, of course, our confidence is not in this world but the world into which we are invited in Christ, and the great hope that gives us in the face of the prospect of death.”
Briel knew the immediacy of Jesus Christ, so that even when all hope appeared to be lost, he heard Jesus speaking to him: “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
This Sunday, and every day of our lives, let us acknowledge that we are tempted to fear, but let us not give in to that fear, but respond as Jesus calls us to by having faith in him, for Jesus has conquered all things, even death itself.
Father Gjengdahl is chaplain of Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria.
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