Perfect Timing

Setting our watches by Jesus sense of time

02/04/2020

Mark 5:21-43 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.” He went off with him and a large crowd followed him. There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?” And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.” While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.

Have you seen that billboard sign as you drive through Dora to get to I-40? It displays a Scripture citation, 2 Peter 3:8-9, and simply asks one question: “Are you ready?” Well, I got fed up with being a typical Catholic who doesn’t know any bible verses, and finally looked up those two enigmatic verses. St. Peter, the first pope, wrote: “But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” The following verse continues: “The Lord does not delay his promises, as some regard delay, but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” In other words, the sign is suggesting everyone should go to confession, repentance,” a Protestant style of confession.

What intrigues me most about that sign and the scripture is the term “delay.” I don’t know about you, but it often feels like God’s answers to my prayers seem delayed, or at least not on my schedule. God’s timing, however, is always perfect, even if it does not coordinate exactly with my own timing. A man approached a fortune teller and asked: “Are there golf courses in heaven?” The fortune teller replied: “Well, I have good news and I have bad news.” The guy asked, “What’s the good news?” She said: “The good news is the golf courses in have are beautiful beyond anything you could imagine!” The man exclaimed: “That’s wonderful!” She continued: “The bad news is you’ll be teeing off at 8:30 tomorrow morning.” Sometimes we want God to be on time, and sometimes we want God to take his time. God’s timing does not always match our timing, still his timing is always perfect.

In the gospel of Mark, Jesus seems “delayed” on his way to heal the daughter of Jairus, and his daughter is on the verge of death. Along the way, Jesus is distracted and apparently delayed by a woman with a severe hemorrhage with which she has suffered for 12 years. When he stops to heal her, Jairus’ daughter expires and dies. Jesus is too late to help her, like I often think Jesus’ answers to my prayers are often too late to help me. Jesus, however, answers: “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” We know how the rest of the story ends: Jesus raises the little girl back to life. The point is that Jesus is never too late, but that doesn’t mean he will always arrive on our schedule. We must wait for him with patience and faith, believing his timing is always perfect.

May I suggest a simply spiritual exercise that may help us tune into Jesus’ timing, and step according to his schedule? Try to be fully present in the here and now, paying attention to the people and places, the opportunities and obstacles that face you in this moment, not yesterday or tomorrow. In order to do that, we must stop being preoccupied with the past, and try not to fret about the future. Indeed, in a very real sense, the present moment is all we really have to do anything with, while the past and the future lie beyond our grasp. Of course, it’s healthy and holy to remember the past, and productive and prudent to plan for the future. But sometimes we become to engrossed win the pastor or so focused on the future that we miss the miracles happening right before our eyes. Indeed, that was what caused Jesus’ delay in the gospel: our Lord was laser-focused on the people right in front of him.

I have a habit of teaching our altar servers a little trick to make them better servers. I tell them: “The secret to being a great server is to think ahead. Don’t just think about what you’re doing at that moment, but try to think about the next think you have to do. What is the next thing the priest needs you to bring to him?” Now, that advice might make them very good servers, but it might also make them very poor Christians. Why? Well, because they would miss the miracle of the Mass unfolding right before their eyes. If might be good for them, and for me, if they were “delayed” every now and then.

Praised be Jesus Christ!