And when he came in, he said unto them,
Why make you this commotion, and weep? the child is not dead, but sleeps.
Read Chapter 5
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
And what shall I say about the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, at whose death the people were mourning and the flute players were playing their music? On the assumption that she was indeed dead, solemn funeral services were already being performed. But her spirit returned immediately at the voice of the Lord. She arose with revived body and partook of food to furnish proof that she was alive. On His Brother, Satyrus
He comes to the house, and finds the customary funeral rites already underway, and he says to them, “Why do you make a tumult and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.” He spoke the truth. She was in a certain sense asleep—asleep, that is, in respect of him, by whom she could be awakened. So awakening her, he restored her alive to her parents.
The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. For although she is really dead, yet she shall be forthwith awakened by Me from death as from sleep. Or, as the Scholiast in S. Jerome says, "To you she is dead, to Me she sleepeth."
Talitha cumi. In Hebrew a boy is called ieled, for which the Syrians and Chaldeans say tali, from whence comes the feminine talitha, that Isaiah , girl. Cumi means arise, that she being dead should arise from the bed. Moreover, that Mark might give greater emphasis, and express the sense of one who called and commanded, he added, I say unto thee, as S. Jerome says.
Let us, if it is pleasing to you, speak for a moment of the pains and anxieties which parents take upon themselves and endure in patience out of love and affection for their children. Here, surrounded by her family and by the sympathy and affection of her relations, a daughter lies upon her bed of suffering. She is fading in body. Her father’s mind and spirit are worn with grief. She is suffering the inward pangs of her sickness. He, unwashed, unkempt, is absorbed wholly in sorrow. He suffers and endures before the eyes of the world. She is sinking into the quiet of death…. Alas! why are children indifferent to these things! Why are they not mindful of them? Why are they not eager to make a return to their parents for them? But the love of parents goes on nevertheless; and whatever parents bestow upon their children, God, the parent of us all, will duly repay.
