June 28, 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Mark 5:21-43

How often are we told to plan out our days in order to make the most effective use of our time? But well-planned days are not always our most effective days. Sometimes the days filled with interruptions, detours, and unexpected demands prove to be the most rewarding for us—and the most transformative for those we serve.

In this week’s Gospel reading, two people in great distress do what a third, the Gerasene demoniac, has already done: they interrupt and rearrange Jesus’ day. It is in his willingness to flip the script and be redirected by their desperate pleas that healing comes for all involved. Jesus seems to take the interruptions and rearranging in stride. In Jesus we see no flash of anger at being interrupted, no musing over what will have to be put off for another day, no hand-wringing over best-laid plans gone astray. He simply addresses the needs before him.

Jairus, casting aside every entitlement to rank and prestige, falls at the feet of this itinerant rabbi with a desperate plea for his little daughter. As a synagogue ruler, Jairus is regarded as a very important person but not necessarily a spiritual one. But in an act of faith, he begs Jesus repeatedly to come and lay his hands on his child. His plea and his prayer are that the divine power he so desperately needs for his daughter will be made manifest in the unlikely person of Jesus.