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Warning: Images of the Grim Reaper appear in the beginning of the first reading (Wisdom 1:13) and in the Gospel acclamation to depict death.

Today's first reading reminds us that death entered the world because of man's sinfulness, a product of the devil.  With Jesus, and by our baptism, we have new life in Christ!  Eternal life in Christ!  Even though we die, we do not belong to the netherworld: we belong to God.  Death is not the final answer.  We are not conquered by sin and death.  We belong to God and He "formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature He made him." God sent us Jesus.  Jesus came and died for each of us to take away sin and death forever!  Jesus has conquered sin and death.  At every Mass we say, "Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us!"

The Lord God is our rescuer!  He is the only one that can save us from our sin, from our sorrow, from our sadness.  Even in the worst of times, God is with us.  We may not feel or see his presence in the midst of our deepest sorrow, but He is with us! Let us always remember and acknowledge his presence each and every day especially in those moments we need him most.

In today's second reading Paul reminds us of taking care of one another...being there for one another.  "....as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their needs, so that their abundance may also supply your needs, that there may be equality."

As the Body of Christ, the Body of Believers in Christ, we are called to be in communion with one another and with God's Church.  We are fed by His body and His blood, so that we can go out into the world and be food to our brothers and sisters.  If we are blessed with an abundance, we are to share our abundance with the needs of others.  This is charity.  All we have is a gift from God and really belongs to Him.  This is something to ponder on a daily basis.

In today's Gospel, Jesus performs miracles!  First he heals the woman afflicted with 12 years of hemorrhaging and then heals Jairus's daughter, who was at the point of death.

Both of these incidents are coming from a place of deep faith in God.  The bleeding woman risks her life to go out in public and see and touch the garment of Jesus. Because she is bleeding, she is forced to live like an outcast because she is deemed "unclean and unfit".  But her deep, abiding faith lead her to seek out Jesus and we are privileged to read and hear her inmost thoughts, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured."  This simple act of touching Jesus with faith cures her.

Then we read of the story of Jairus, a synagogue official, whose daughter has fallen ill and is at the point of death.  He falls to his feet and pleads earnestly with Jesus, saying, "My daughter is at the point of death.  Please come and lay your hands on her that she may get well and live."  Again, Jesus goes to the little girl, takes her hand and says, "Talitha koum" which means, "Little girl, I say to you arise!"  And she rises immediately.

The abiding faith in God and in the One who was sent, brings healing and hope. Jesus asks us to place our trust in him and to always focus on him  especially in those times of need of healing.  Jesus, I trust in you!

The feast of the Precious Blood of our Lord was instituted in 1849 by Pius IX, but the devotion is as old as Christianity. The early Fathers say that the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ, and that the sacraments were brought forth through His Blood.

 "The Precious Blood which we worship is the Blood which the Savior shed for us on Calvary and reassumed at His glorious Resurrection; it is the Blood which courses through the veins of His risen, glorified, living body at the right hand of God the Father in heaven; it is the Blood made present on our altars by the words of Consecration; it is the Blood which merited sanctifying grace for us and through it washes and beautifies our soul and inaugurates the beginning of eternal life in it."