13th Sunday in Ordinary
Time
Cycle B
June 28, 2015 10:30am and 12:00 Noon
Saint
Margaret Parish, Bel Air
My List of Intentions
I am
holding here my personal prayer book.
It is
called The Liturgy of the Hours. I brought this here today because I want to
tell you about a piece of paper I keep inside the front cover of this book.
On this
paper, I write the names of persons who have asked me to pray for them. Most of these persons are dealing with some
kind of sickness, maybe very serious.
For
example, right now I am praying every day for a man named Jim, a friend whom I
have known for fifteen years. By the
way, I mention his name because he is not in this parish and I doubt you would
know him.
Jim is
dealing with a very serious cancer, a brain tumor. Every day I pray for him and for many others,
mostly Saint Margaret parishioners.
Jairus and the Woman
I thought
of these prayers this past week when I read today’s gospel.
We have
two stories and they are similar. One
person asks Jesus to help somebody else.
The
other person asks Jesus to help herself.
We are first told that a man named Jairus kneels down at Jesus’ feet and
pleads with him.
He asks
Jesus to come and heal his daughter who is very sick. Jesus hears his request and actually restores
the little girl to life because she has died before Jesus gets to Jairus’ home.
And
then, in the midst of that, a woman who has been ill for years with a
hemorrhage approaches Jesus. She touches
the hem of his cloak and feels healing power enter her body.
Jesus ends
up saying to her, “Daughter, your faith
has saved you. Go in peace and be cured
of your affliction.”
Our Prayers of Petition
I see
in these stories the importance of bringing our needs and the needs of others
to God.
Fundamentally,
this is important because it expresses our dependence on God. It keeps us aware of our human vulnerability
and our need for God.
And
then, when we bring our own needs to God as the woman in the gospel does, we
open ourselves to God’s life. We are
really asking God to bring his life to our situation.
It
might be sickness, financial trouble, an addiction, a relationship problem,
whatever. The woman with the hemorrhage
is opening herself to the life and power of Jesus.
That’s
what we do when we reach out to touch Jesus in prayer. We allow the life and power of Jesus to enter
and help us.
We are
doing a similar thing when we bring the needs of others to Jesus, as Jairus does
in the story. We are asking God to bring
life to them in their need, whatever it is.
Especially
for those who are sick, we ask God to give them inner peace, strength, and
forbearance. And we ask God to give them
physical healing, a restoration to health.
You and
I both know that sometimes this doesn’t happen when we pray for others or for
ourselves. There will be a time for each
of us when our physical bodies will fail and we will move on from life on this
earth.
But we
still pray for each other or for ourselves and ask that God’s life will enter
and empower us. We pray for that this inner
communion of life, this oneness with God will take the one we are praying for or
ourselves peacefully to the fullness of God’s life.
Conclusion
So, I
recommend that you consider keeping a list.
Keep a
list of those who have asked you to pray for them and others whom you want to
pray for. Also, keep a list of
intentions or needs for yourself.
And
bring these needs to God every day. Our
prayers of petition are valuable.
