To have is to share and not to hoard; at least this is implicit in the command of Jesus to love one another as he loves us. What one has is to be used as a good steward. Life is meant to be lived in harmony where no one is excluded. Death was not in the plan of our Father when he created us to enjoy in his abundance; otherwise Jesus would not have raised anyone from the dead. When man (Adam) decided on what was good and not good, he decided against the plan of our Father. This brought about a spiritual death that eventually led to a physical death.
We slowly die as we stop sharing what we have experienced and what we have gathered. The heart becomes smaller and smaller oppressed by the material wealth and spiritual selfishness. We give in a measured manner so that there is sustainable giving; the ever flow of goods leading to a balanced life.
Jesus restores health and life to those afflicted in order to reinstate them back into society and to a full life with the community. The healing though impacting the individual has a greater social dimension. Those suffering along with the individual sufferer are set free to see the fullness of life they had been hoping for their loved one. The woman was restricted in her movement. She could not enter the temple, much more not allowed into social gatherings where she would be frowned upon. The healing changed all this. Being made whole physically, she now carried the confidence to be with others.
Jesus was generous with his words and actions. He bids us by this example to do the same. Jesus did not know Jairus socially but it did not stop him from reaching out to him in his time of pain and loss. Most, if not all of us, are not able to raise someone from the dead and this might not be the gift our Father has given to us but to be lifegiving is what the Lord commands of us when Jesus said, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ Lifegiving begins with thinking. If our thoughts are not about doing good for others, our lifestyle will not be about giving life to others. When we live an inward looking sort of life, there are only fleeting happiness that comes now and then.
As much as we pray, ‘give us our daily bread’, a prayer that asks for what we need for the day without think about hoarding or about saving for a rainy day, we continue with ‘forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us’. This forgiveness is about not holding a grudge against someone else. It is a thought that seeks the goodness for others. It is a thought about giving life to myself as well as to the perpetrator.
Jesus is offering us life in abundance and the abundance can be found only in him.
Written by the Solis Family