Jesus Triumphs

Posted: 26 Jun 2009 09:00 PM PDT

Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24 / 2 Cor 8:7,9,13-15 / Mk 5:21-43

…no destructive drug among them…? What happened? What was God’s intention if there had been no domain of the netherworld on earth?

We get the answer later in this reading from Wisdom: by the envy of the devil, death entered the world…

Yet Jesus triumphs over death, destruction, and the devil.

Who caused the woman’s hemorrhage in the Gospel? Only God knows for sure. How did Jairus’ little girl die? Only God knows for sure. Why did these and all the other destructions happen? Only God knows for sure.

Yet Jesus triumphs over death, destruction, and the devil.

Why did Job endure all he did? God told him: only He knows and understands for sure.

Yet Jesus triumphs over death, destruction, and the devil.

Why is there such war in our world, such fighting supposedly in the name of God? Only God knows for sure. We cannot set ourselves up to judge. Only God judges for sure. We can fight in our understanding for righteousness and against injustice. But only God knows which is which for sure.

Yet Jesus triumphs over death, destruction, and the devil.

We stand with Him. Triumphing over sickness. Triumphing over addictions. Triumphing over abuse of any sort – for it is all a destructive tactic of the devil, whether the abuse is against the unborn, or families, or nations.

We do know what is true — no — what is True. Truth is not something but Someone.

Knowing that Truth, we triumph over death, destruction, and the devil along with Him who is the way, the truth, and the life. As He raised Jairus’ little girl, so He raises us — even as the devil tries to raze us.

As St. Paul says to the Corinthians today: you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ — you know His triumph over death, destruction, and the devil.

May His triumph reign in and through us despite the destructions planned against us.