Wis 1:13-15, 2:23-24
Ps 30:2, 4-6, 11-13
2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15
Mk 5:21-43
St. Helena Catholic Church, San Antonio,
TX
St. Monica Catholic Church, San Antonio,
TX
In today’s Gospel reading, we hear the stories of two women who received
miracles at the hands of Jesus. Their stories are a lesson about the faith of
those who are healed and the faith of the community around them. We first heard
the miracle of the woman who had been suffering from menstrual bleeding for
twelve long years. Her suffering was indeed great. She would have been unable
to have children, she would have been forbidden to enter into the marital union
(Lev 20:18), and her uncleanness under the law would have been grounds for
divorce. Worse still, because she was considered unclean, the poor woman would
have been prevented from entering the synagogue to worship God with her people (Lev
15:31-35). By the time Jesus wandered by, she had exhausted all of her money on
doctors that were unable to cure her. She was truly desperate: chronically ill,
socially and religiously rejected as unclean, impoverished with no more
resources, and utterly alone. She had
nowhere else to turn to for help.
In her desperation, she turns to her very last hope: this wandering teacher she has heard about. Maybe
this Jesus fellow can do something, anything
for her? The woman pulls together her shreds of courage and reaches out a hand
in the midst of the crowd. “She had wanted to touch Jesus’ garment lightly,
without attracting any attention to herself, whereas others were bumping
roughly against him. Yet her touch
was more effective than all the rest, because through faith it came into
contact with the person of Jesus and
his healing power.”[1] But Jesus does not
want her to slip away with only a physical healing. The fullness of healing,
spiritual as well as physical, occurs only in a personal encounter with himself.[2] Jesus reacts with
what sounded like a really dumb question to the disciples: “Who touched me?” But
Jesus was not speaking to them. He was speaking to her. It was a test of her
faith. She had already seriously violated the purity laws by daring to touch
him. Would her faith be strong enough to come forward and publically profess
her faith by admitting what she did? This is such a powerful lesson for us! We
who have faith cannot keep it hidden. Like the woman, we are called to show our
faith in our public lives. Do we have the courage to do so?
In faith and with great courage, the woman acknowledges to Jesus what
she has done and he comforted her. Her faith has saved her! It was not her initiative to reach out and touch
him that saved her. It was the initiative of Jesus Christ who first gave her that
seed of faith that enabled her to respond
to Him. Jesus called her ‘daughter.’ Daughter! Jesus is not merely healing her
and going on his merry way. No! He is inviting her into a relationship with Him
as a member of the family of God. His healing of her bleeding has restored her
former way of life, but now Jesus wants to give her an even more abundant life
as his disciple.
Nothing is so unclean that the Lord cannot make it clean. We are to
approach him with faith, with courage, with determination, knowing that as we
do so we are responding to the grace he first gave to us. We are to seek his
healing touch so that we can enter into a deeper relationship with our Risen Lord.
We can never let any fear keep us from reaching out to touch Jesus in the
sacrament of confession. Do not be afraid of the priest – you cannot shock him
with your sins. Do not be afraid of Christ because you have confessed the same
sins over and over – the woman was bleeding to death for twelve years and was
healed. We must allow Jesus to heal us with his gentle touch in the
confessional so our life can be lived more abundantly as well. Every encounter
with the grace of God is an invitation to this deep abiding relationship with Jesus
Christ. Jesus dismissed the woman with the traditional Jewish blessing “Go in
peace.” That is the same blessing I pronounce at the end of every confession I
hear.
We also heard today of the miracle of the deathly ill twelve year old daughter
of the synagogue official, Jairus. He was a “layman whose duties included
oversight of the synagogue’s activities and finances.”[3] In faith, he asked
Jesus for help and the teacher agreed. This was a bold and remarkable move,
considering that the last time Jesus
visited the synagogue (Mk 3:6), the officials tied to kill him! When messengers
arrived informing Jairus that his daughter was already dead, he faced a choice.
Would he listen to the crowd and turn aside from ‘bothering’ Jesus or would he
accept the ridicule and accusations of those closest to him to bring Jesus to
his daughter? It was a test of faith for Jairus and a lesson for us. To follow Jesus
Christ as a disciple is to invite ridicule and condemnation upon ourselves from
the world. Do we have the courage to push forward? Jesus told Jairus the same thing
he tells us today: “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” Jesus wants to be ‘bothered’ by us!
When they arrive at Jairus’ house, Jesus allows only the members of
his inner circle (Peter, James and John) plus Jairus to enter and he expels the
faithless mourners. Only those with faith are allowed to be present with Jesus.
Only those of us who respond in faith to Jesus will be able to enter into a relationship
with him. Jesus then touches the corpse of the girl, again in violation of the Jewish
purity laws. Jesus cannot be made unclean, but what he touches is made clean
again. In this miracle however, it is not the touch of Jesus that saves her,
but his Word – he commands the girl to rise. The word he uses (egeiro in Greek) is the same word Mark
uses later in the Gospel to refer to Christ’s resurrection (Mk 16:6). Jesus is
not just restoring her to her old life, but like the first woman afflicted with
bleeding, he is inviting the girl into a new abundant life as his disciple. Jesus
then instructs those present to give the girl something to eat. He is offering
the girl a relationship with him through his disciples who will feed her with
the Word of God and later with the Eucharist.
These miracle stories in the Gospel
show us the way we are to approach Jesus. Do we merely bump up against him,
even when receiving the Eucharist? Do we half-consciously brush by him amid all
the preoccupations in our life? Or do we reach out in faith with determination
and courage, knowing that when we touch Jesus personally, grace and power can
flow from Him into our lives? Faith is the key that allows Jesus to accomplish
mighty works in our lives (Mk 6:5-6). When we reject fear and act with faith, we
can come into contact with Jesus Christ and our relationship with him becomes
deeper and more personal. Our lives are made more abundant.
St. Joseph, Patron
of the Afflicted, Pray for Us!
[1] Mary
Healy, The Gospel of Mark, Catholic
Commentary on Sacred Scripture (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2008), 105–106.
[2] Healy,
105.
[3] Healy, 104.
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