Mark 5:35-42
While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader's house to say, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?"
But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him.
Then he put them all outside, and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum," which means (in Arameic), "Little girl, get up!" And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement…
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Once upon a time, I remember, that it happened that the 1988 Atlantic hurricane season was a near dreadfully average season that proved costly and deadly, which produced 19 tropical depressions of which 12 attained tropical storm status.
From these five tropical cyclones reached hurricane status of which three became major hurricanes. The most notable cyclone of the season was Hurricane Gilbert, which at that time had become he strongest Atlantic hurricane ever, a category 5 on record. Its passage through the Caribbean area, caused $2.98 billion in damage and more than 300 deaths, mostly in Mexico.
Gilbert strengthened rapidly after emerging from the coast of Jamaica. As the hurricane brushed the Cayman Islands, and the Explosive intensification continued, until Gilbert reached a minimum pressure of 888 mbar with maximum sustained flight-level winds of 295 km/h.
This pressure was the lowest ever observed in the Western Hemisphere and made Gilbert the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record at the time.
Since then, I have learned, that despite the race-car speed of the sea storm in general, the eye is by far the calmest part of the storm, with no wind at the center and typically clear skies. According to the wikipedia, it is a common mistake, especially in areas where hurricanes are uncommon, that residents exit their homes to inspect the damage while the calm eye of the storm passes over, only to be caught off guard by the violent winds in the opposite eyewall.
There is an elaborated sophism regarding winds, that winds are unstoppable, because wind is described by speed. Either it is a gentle breeze or a tsunami. Until the wind is wind, there is speed. Where there is no speed, there is no wind at all.
Thus, it can be established, that the calm of the wind means the lack of the wind.
It is very interesting, that in the Gospel of John Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to the wind, saying that the wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
It might not be a coincidence that the word Spirit is the same word in both Hebrew and Greek, Ruach and Pneuma. Both can mean either “wind,” or “spirit,” or “breath” depending upon the context. Prophet Ezekiel wrote that God told him that, “Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the wind, The Lord Yahweh says: ‘Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”
If somebody dies, the life leaves the body. The body and its molecules and its cells are lifeless in themselves. There are no wind in their sails. The breath of life is missing, and its primary carrier is not the body, but the human soul. When the soul leaves the body, the life in the soul leaves the body, the breath of the life leaves the body, the wind stalls and leaves the sails empty, and the ship stops moving.
Jesus went to the house of the synagogue leader, whose 12 years old daughter was not anymore dying, but she had passed away already. The relatives and the crowd from the neighborhood cried with great bitterness. Jesus arrived and said to them: Do not cry, because she is not dead, but sleeping.
It was so unbelievable what he said that they laughed at him, like in denial of him.
But Jesus knew what they seemed to not know, that the soul of the girl is very much alive, and carries the breath of life. If the soul returns into the body, the body will gain life, the wind starts to blow its sails, and the girl will start to breath again.
When the soul leaves the body behind, it enters the realm of the dream world which belongs to the spiritual realm together with the prayers, that is why, by the sages, death was compared to sleeping, having a dream like existence in the Afterlife.
Jesus had to pray to the King of the Universe to let the soul of the girl return into her body, and then he was able to tell the girl, who was an invisible soul in her essence, but on Earth wearing a body as a coat or as a vessel or as a vehicle, that girl, I tell you to wake up from your sleep, and come back into this life, aka dear soul, come back into the body.
We have to understand that we are not our body, we are all souls, we are spiritual entities. We are on Earth on a probation, like in a boot camp, in order to be tested and tried whether we are worthy to reenter Heaven.
There is a pathway to Heaven established by God in Jesus, his Son, our master and teacher, our brother and friend. When the apostles fully understood this, they received the gift of the Holy Spirit, as it is exactly written in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, that “on the day of Pentecost, seven weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm in the skies above them, and it filled the house where they were meeting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit (...) ”
It happened around two thousand years ago. Since then we count all the days as Post Pentecost time. Every year we celebrate the Pentecost High Holiday, and the season after that is called the season after Pentecost and it lasts until the Advent season arrives, as a recurring season, every year. However in the great count, we live int the two thousand years old after-Pentecost-era and we have to hear the wind of the Spirit, every day. May the Lord be praised, by our faith, which must be shown in our deeds,
Amen.
