{"id":679,"date":"2024-07-16T01:28:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T01:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/?p=679"},"modified":"2026-02-20T22:04:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:04:25","slug":"faith-in-jesus-not-our-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/2024\/07\/16\/faith-in-jesus-not-our-actions\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith in Jesus, not our Actions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Homily 7-8-24; Monday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pharisees were filled with pride. They also had a lot of strict rules to follow with regard to cleanliness. Coming in contact with a woman who was bleeding or touching a corpse, made one ritually unclean. In today\u2019s gospel passage, Jesus disregards both of these. In performing the two miracles, He allowed the hemorrhaging woman to touch his cloak; and He took the dead girl\u2019s hand and told her to rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, on Sunday, we had the same gospel story as the one we had today, except that one was from Mark\u2019s gospel and today\u2019s is from Matthew\u2019s. Last week we heard Jairus, the synagogue official say: \u201cMy daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> He had faith that Jesus could heal his daughter. Today we heard him say: \u201cMy daughter has just died. But come, lay your hand on her, and she will live.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Matthew portrays the official as having even greater faith\u2014that Jesus could bring his daughter back from the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jairus was a ruler in the synagogue, but he humbled himself; he knelt at Jesus\u2019 feet. As a synagogue official, this must have been very disconcerting to the Pharisees who failed to recognize who Jesus was. And, because of Jairus\u2019 faith and humility, Jesus did raise his daughter from the dead. But still the Pharisees did not believe; they went about washing hands and cups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a synagogue official, Jairus must have followed all the rules of the Pharisees, but he didn\u2019t put his faith in them. With great faith, he humbly knelt before Jesus and asked for His help and Jesus dropped everything and answered his prayer. It is a good reminder for us not to become pharisaical, focusing on obeying a set of rules at the sacrifice of putting our faith in Jesus; not to put our faith in our own actions, but rather in a loving and merciful God. Sure, the Church has rules that we should follow just like Jairus followed the rules of the Pharisees. But that is not an end to itself. In faith we should humbly kneel before Jesus and sincerely bring Him our needs and desires knowing that, if He wishes, He has the power to answer our prayers. Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to strengthen our faith to put our lives in God\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homily 7-8-24; Monday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time: The Pharisees were filled with pride. They also had a lot of strict rules to follow with regard to cleanliness. Coming in contact with a woman who was bleeding or touching a corpse, made one ritually unclean. In today\u2019s gospel passage, Jesus disregards both of… Continue reading Faith in Jesus, not our Actions<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekday-homilies","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":680,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions\/680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}