Back To Life

Dedicating this week's post to my student, Hope Faley, a remarkable young woman who left us too soon. May her memory be eternal (October 2024).

This week’s gospel is about?bringing a little girl back to life and healing the hearts of a community in the process. It’s another one we’ve heard a million times yet we don’t always capture the subtleties of the story….

Jesus happens upon the scene of the mourning family struggling with the loss of this cherished child. When He claims she’s not dead, but sleeping… the community laughs at Him. Who is this stranger telling them about one of their own as if he could possibly know better?

But we’re all like sleeping children waiting to be brought back to life, which is something we see when the little girl is brought back to life. In that moment more than just the body of the child is resurrected. The hearts and faith of all those around her are also reinvigorated.

There are so many gospel passages in which we’re asked to keep a childlike heart, to open our eyes and ears to the Word, to recall and accept the one Parent with whom we often forget to connect during the bustling week.

In hearing the story, a few questions come to mind, two of interest to us this morning:

• What's the reason for the community reboot?
• What's the reason for bringing back the child within us?
• How does being vulnerable and defending our values affect our perspectives and choices?
• How can we keep the faith -- in God, in ourselves and in each other -- in a world that's so harsh and complex, surrounded by doubters and non-believers?

When the world is down on you, your Divine Parent has your back, though you may not see or hear Him. The person sent along your path might be precisely the one you're meant to encounter to address a question or resolve a problem. Stop, listen… understand the things going on around you… then make your choices with confidence and move forward in work and in life.?

What we encounter may not always be what we want to see/hear, but if we maintain an attentive and understanding mindset we'll come to an understanding about what every moment and encounter is meant to accomplish. Even the harshest trials and challenges are learning moments for a person if the person is open to seeing their value rather than maintaining a stressed and negative mindset about it.

What does this have to do with my usual Aristotelian shtick? It’s an invitation to engage in mindful resilience and positive professional identity, which I often discuss in my coaching sessions and philosophical lectures — an invitation to embrace what Aristotle would refer to as the Golden Mean.?This level of reflection often does require a similar personal or professional "reboot" and a willingness to be vulnerable to ourselves and with others. In accepting our own vulnerability we can be open to the true value of everything around us with the purity of a child's heart and the attentiveness of a confident, resilient person.

For more details, please subscribe to Philo4Thought’s YouTube Channel and check out the videos from our Resilient You and Empowerment Summit video series. We’ll be transitioning many of them to podcast format soon, so stay tuned! ;)