David and Jairus: Homily for Tuesday, January 30, 2024

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Two fathers. Two different examples.

David and Jairus

We have two pictures of parents. We have King David in the first reading. We have Jairus in the second. I mentioned yesterday, we talked about the fact that King David wasn’t a good father. Absalom had brought to his attention some time ago that one of his daughters, one of David’s daughters, was being sexually abused. And David ignored it completely. And that was the end for Absalom.

But it wasn’t just that. The relationship between them is an interesting one because in many respects it was a cold relationship. It was not a relationship where Absalom felt the deep love of his father. We hear a little bit of that here. When he’s asking about Absalom, we get a sense of the challenge because very rarely, we heard it yesterday, we hear a little bit today, does David refer to Absalom as his son. He refers to him as the boy, the lad.

There’s a generic term in describing Absalom. He’s not a good father. And by the time he comes to recognize that he’s not a good father, it’s too late. Absalom has died. It is then that David is very strong in saying, “My son, my son, my son Absalom.” I think he really did love his son Absalom. But he didn’t know how. He didn’t know what to do. And we see how it ends so sadly for David, to be hunted down by his son, presumably to be killed, so that his son could become king in his stead.

Contrast that with the example of Jairus in the Gospel. Jairus’ daughter is sick. She’s dying. It’s not a small illness. It’s a serious one. What will Jairus do for his daughter? Whatever it takes. Jairus is a synagogue official who is obviously a person of faith. He knows that Jesus can do something. It seems to me there are two things that come out of this.

First of all, the need for holy parents. I don’t have children of my own, obviously, but I can tell you it’s very clear to me, even from a distance, parenting isn’t easy. It certainly has great moments of reward, don’t get me wrong, but it’s hard. Forming and shaping and helping a young mind, a little boy, a little girl, and oftentimes combinations of both, not easy. Not easy. And yet, the high vocation.

I often say that marriage is really, in so many ways, the most important vocation. We don’t always think that way, but my rationale is this. First of all, I am unbelievably grateful that my parents answered the call to be married by God. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here. I’m pretty grateful. Every priest in the church, every sister in the church, every religious in the church, every disciple in the church comes from parents. That’s why it’s such a critical thing.

One last thing about the gospel today, because this is a technique that Mark uses more than the other gospels. As a matter of fact, I think most of the time when the other gospels use the technique I’m going to talk about, they’re actually taking the story from Mark. It’s called different things. I remember in the seminary, sometimes referred to as framing or sandwiching. But essentially, it’s two stories.

And you have on the outside of the story, or the outside of the passage, one story, and then there it’s inserted in the middle another story, really to emphasize the main point, which here is faith. This woman who has suffered so long has enough faith in Jesus. She knows all she needs to do is just touch his cloak. Jesus makes the unclean clean.

That is completely different than any other aspect of the Jewish law. Normally when one encountered something unclean, they too became unclean. Jesus constantly does the opposite. The unclean come to him, and they are made clean. Whatever vocation God has given you at this point in your life, decide who it is that you’re going to be. Decide to be like Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhages.

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