Gospel of 6 July 2020
Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Matthew 9:18-26
'Your faith has restored you to health'
While Jesus was speaking, up came one of the officials, who bowed low in front of him and said, ‘My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and her life will be saved.’ Jesus rose and, with his disciples, followed him. Then from behind him came a woman, who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years, and she touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, ‘If I can only touch his cloak I shall be well again.’ Jesus turned round and saw her; and he said to her, ‘Courage, my daughter, your faith has restored you to health.’ And from that moment the woman was well again.
When Jesus reached the official’s house and saw the flute-players, with the crowd making a commotion he said, ‘Get out of here; the little girl is not dead, she is asleep.’ And they laughed at him. But when the people had been turned out he went inside and took the little girl by the hand; and she stood up. And the news spread all round the countryside.
Reflexion
In the most widely read fantasy trilogy, the Lord of the Rings, the wizard Gandalf answers the accusation that 'he is late', with this gem of a quotation: “A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”
Perhaps, this would be the answer that our Lord would have given to those who had impatiently waited for His quick action. By the time the Lord was done tending to the need of the older woman, the daughter of the official had already expired. Having been uncharacteristically distracted and arriving with a certain nonchalance, the reader is led to believe that the Lord was planning this all along.
Jesus’ seeming delay in this story has the intention of refocusing our attention to the one who really gets to set the agenda. It is not the woman who had been suffering the haemorrhage for twelve years or the desperate father of the girl, who sets the timeline and the agenda for our Lord to act. We don’t get to set the agenda or fix the timeline for God to respond to our prayers. It is the Lord Himself who sets the agenda and the timeline because it is the Lord who is always in charge and who will always know when, where and how to act, to bring out the best outcome for us.
As much as we often grow anxious and impatient with God’s seeming slowness to act, we need to remember that God is never late. We just need to trust Him and allow Him to do the job. Because, at the end of the day, God is never late, nor is He early. He arrives precisely when He means to.