Tuesday, February 4, 2014

God's love, affection and desire for our safety


Both of the readings of today’s liturgy, 2 Sam 18: 9-10, 14, 24-25, 30; 19:3  and Mark 5: 21-43, speak of the bond of love, affection, and concern members of a family have toward one another and God toward His family, us, his children. In the first reading, David is inconsolable when he hears that his son Absalom was killed, even though Absalom was hunting down his father to murder him.  In the Gospel, we experience the tenderness, the love, and the affection of God/Jesus toward the woman who touches the hem of his garment, the official of the synagogue whose 12-year-old daughter is dying, and the little girl herself.  God, a God of tenderness, compassion, and love, wants to heal us and make us whole.
David  and Absalom reflects God’s relationship with us. Though we may turn against God and choose our will over His, as Absalom turned against his father and David chose to commit adultery and murder, God does not stop loving us or wanting the best for us. He desires that no harm come to us .  His healing power flows into us, also,  when we, like the woman suffering from an illness for 12 years and at the end of her “rope,”   but touches the hem of Jesus’ garment, when we but come to Him in faith as did Jairus, asking that his little 12-year-old daughter be brought back from the gates of death.  God’s only response to our faith and trust is love and healing, tenderness and forgiveness, no matter how far we have distanced ourselves from Him. God does not ever walk away and, like David, Absalom’s  father, wants no harm to befall us. His will is to bring us safely back to our eternal home.  What is yours?

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