FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD
JANUARY 31, 2023
Fourth Tuesday of Ordinary Time
ST. JOHN BOSCO
WORD of the DAY
When Jesus had
crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered
around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials,
named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded
earnestly with him, saying,
“My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that
she may get well and live.” He went off with him and a large crowd followed
him. While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house
arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any
longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the
synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John,
the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official,
he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went
in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but
asleep.”
And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s
father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the
child was.
He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means,
“Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose
immediately and walked around.
At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should
know this
and said that she should be given something to eat. (Mark 5: 21-43)
“How shall I live this Word? 
Colorful are the roads that lead us to Christ. Sometimes it’s the desire to know, other times friendships, other times family members, other times the shocking reality of love. But we must not forget that, at times, Jesus is also reached through the narrow path of pain and discouragement. The story reported by today’s Gospel seems to describe exactly this underlying tragedy. There is no longer any hope; they have tried everything and Jairus is moments away from the incontrovertible judgment of his daughter’s death, which will then really happen. Sometimes we don’t need to be surprised, it’s just when we don’t really know where to hit our head, that we begin to remember that the sky opens up above that head. Jesus doesn’t just perform miracles, but He wants to meet us in our existential concreteness, especially when this manifests itself to us in its contradiction, in its absence of hope. No one can wish to experience the time of trial; however, today’s gospel reveals to us that it is even there that God can make room, becoming our traveling companion. The miracle is already that of knowing that we are not alone, in fact it is loneliness, feeling alone in life that hurts us the most and takes away all hope from us. This is a preview of the resurrection, when in front of our situations of death someone stands next to us, leans towards us saying: “Get up!”.
O God, who raised up the presbyter Saint John Bosco as father and teacher of the young, grant us the same flame of charity, at the service of your glory, for the salvation of our brothers and sisters.
The Voice of St. John Bosco
Love what the young love so that they will also love what you love. Seek that the young are not only loved, but know that they are loved.
E-mail: srmterzo@gmail.com Website: www.sanbiagio.org info@sanbiagio.org Blog: livingscripture.wordpress.com Comment by Fr. Maurizio Lollobrigida, SDB
