How many times in your life have you had to arise?
I went to bed at 6:00 PM Friday night. Many know that I am an early bedtime person, but even this was ridiculously early for me. I came down with a sinus infection late in the week, and I had just taken my first dose of antibiotics and other miracle medicines that made my face pain lessen and my nose open enough to sleep. I fought valiantly through the end of the week, but by 6:00PM Friday, I was down for the count.
Maybe that’s why when I read today’s readings, I just couldn’t stop looking at the line “Talitha Koum” – “Little girl, I say to you arise.” I thought about how miserable I felt Friday night, and how much better I felt the next morning after both medicine and rest. It was like I had come alive again.
Sometimes we need literal medicine to heal. Other times, we need a whole lot of grace.
(Sometimes we need both)
It’s tempting to look at today’s Gospel with its miraculous healing of a little girl (and others) and say: “That doesn’t happen anymore. Something that clearly miraculous has never happened to me anyway.”
But are you sure it hasn’t?
This Gospel had me thinking about the many moments in my life where I was down for the count (and not just with sinus infections). Times where I was literally on the floor crying because of a breakup or the loss of a friendship or because I was overcome with grief. Times when I was lost or confused or on the wrong path and had no idea where I was going.
As I thought about each of these times in turn, however, I realized something.
I’m no longer on that particular floor crying.
I’m no longer lost on that particular road I thought I’d never get off of.
Each time, I got up.
Each time, I moved on.
And you have as well.
This morning I’m letting the words of Jesus remind me of all the times that grace pulled me up off that floor and moved me forward.
Maybe you are in one of those moments right now. Maybe you need help getting up and moving forward. So, my prayer for you is this:
Talitha Koum.
