Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - B June 28, 2009

Wisdom 1: 13-15, 2:23-24 2 Corinthians 8: 7, 9, 13-15 Mark 5: 21-24, 35-43

If you are a baseball fan, particularly a long-suffering type known as an Indians’ fan, you might recall that a couple of week’s ago there was a promotion related to the 20^th anniversary of the movie, “Major League.” The movie appeared to be a fantasy for Indians’ fans because it portrayed a team of misfits coming together and winning the league pennant. As the promotion went on that weekend, I remembered watching that movie on television in the early ‘90s. I would wonder, I guess you could say that I dreamed what it would like to win the pennant. Would this ever be possible?

Then it happened, in the mid to late ‘90s. With the opening of Jacobs Field, and the combination of the place, the players and the management, wins occurred, championships took place. They went to the World Series - not once, but twice. They did not win the Series, but they actually got there.

Of all the memories of those years, perhaps the most remembered is something that is recorded on the wall of the right field stands of Progressive Field. During that time, from June of 1995 through April of 2001, there were 455 consecutive sell-outs of the ball park - a record which was set and held until just last year. To someone who remembers going to cavernous Municipal Stadium with a couple of thousand other fans echoing in the stands, what that figure represents is nothing short - as the saying goes - of a miracle. The combination of all the right things: team effort, capacity crowds, late inning rallies, walk-off wins - they were baseball at its best, especially to a long-suffering fan. They were nothing short of a miracle.

A miracle is the central focus of the Gospel story today. In this passage, the restoration to life of the daughter of the synagogue leader gets the most attention. But as St. Mark tells us this story, there is another aspect which has a greater importance: the faith of the young girl’s father in exactly what is happening. His faith, his trust, is in Jesus Christ, in God who is present to him at that moment and being brought into his home. His faith and trust is present even though he is confronted with a noisy and skeptical crowd. His faith and trust in God in the person of Jesus Christ persists. It is his faith and trust that ultimately brings about the restoration of his daughter.

The word “miracle” easily brings to mind a type of instantaneous cure of one who is blind or deaf or crippled or mentally disturbed or even apparently dead. But the point is often made in the telling of these stories, if close attention is paid, that the real miracle is the bringing together of Gods in the person of Jesus Christ with the active faith, the active trust, the active conviction of the person or persons who are involved. The conviction of the presence of God at that moment makes a difference, it changes the outlook, it enhances the perspective, it deepens the values in the very life of that person. The miracle is the joining of the awareness of the presence of God with the faith of the person so that a whole new, different and positive approach to life and living takes place.

Miracles happen and continue to happen. They are not necessarily cures of illnesses of the body because in many ways these illnesses are a part of being human, or the result of accidents or simply growing older. Rather the miracles can be seen as cures of the illness or weaknesses of the spirit that come about in a deepening faith and trust in God’s persistent, loving care and presence. So often I have heard or read about persons who have gone to shrines like Fatima and Lourdes and did not experience any sort of physical cure. At the same time, however, they will testify to a real cure of heart and spirit that is brought on by the experience of the reality of God and the faith of those who were present as well, both the afflicted and those who helped them.

Miracles happen and continue to happen. Not in a ball park, but here, in this place, in this church. Bread and wine, as Jesus instructed, become his Body and his Blood. Miracles happen, too, when we are here sharing with and supporting one another in faith and trust and conviction that God is present with us. This is the meaning, this is reason for active and participating attitude and action by all of us.

These moments in time can be for any and for all of us a miracle if, like the synagogue leader, we are active and persistent in living out our faith rather than being like the crowd in doubting, scoffing and being indifferent. These moments can be miracles for us, miracles that truly reveal the active, present, restoring, life-giving reality of our good and loving God.