TRUSTING TOUCH


First Reading: Wis 1:13‐15, 2:23‐24
Second Reading: 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13‐15
Gospel: Mk 5:21‐43

Dear friends we are in the Thirteenth Sunday of the Ordinary Time. As mortal beings we all face death one day. We have two kinds of death; one is bodily death and the other one is spiritual death. Among these two, bodily death is inevitable and unescapable whereas spiritual death is more of personal choice. In the first reading, we hear about death from the book of wisdom. Reading those passages we may seem to consider it as reference to bodily death. But they are not, those passages reveal the cause of one’s spiritual death: SIN. Most of us understand this particular passage by relating it to our bodily death. It is because the bodily death opens the gate to gain the reward of spiritual death. Even after dying spiritually a person may continue to live on this earth for many years without being aware of his/her spiritual demise. The bodily death is the revelation time for the soul to know its real state. This kind of arrangement by God for the soul has both the advantage and the disadvantage. The advantage is that the spiritually dead person still has the chance to rise again as s/he is physically alive in this world. S/he has opportunity to repent, confess and make penance. The disadvantage is that the general hope of living long – until a considerable older age – encourages the one to persist in spiritual death. The hope of having sufficient time to repent and make amends puts the person into spiritual sloth. To these people, who have hope of getting time in the future for conversion and repentance I would like to ask why they fail to have hope in the Lord to lead a virtuous and holy life in the face of dominant evil? Yes, it is possible to lead a holy and virtuous life amidst predominant evil around us. To these people today’s gospel is addressed.

In the Gospel we have two healing miracles performed by Jesus. Both miracles are result of faith: i) the faith of Jairus effects the resuscitation of his daughter from death and ii) the faith of the woman with haemorrhage effects in her instant healing. Jairus is a prominent leader in the synagogue who enjoys great respect among people because of his role in the synagogue. He comes and kneels in front of Jesus for the healing of her daughter who is at death bed. He symbolizes our need to pray fervently and humbly in the time of utter helplessness. Jairus is happy to bring Jesus to his house but would he be patient enough to see all the drama that would be taking place on the way? How could a man who is keen on getting Jesus as soon as possible to save her daughter from death patiently witness long enquiry that Jesus does with the woman who gets healed instantly from haemorrhage? Jairus does it. He waits patiently for Jesus’ time. Yes, His dearest and urgent need is not ruling out the need of the other. Jesus has concern for all. Jesus has to heal Jairus daughter as well as woman with haemorrhage. Jairus’ deepest concern in getting his intention to be fulfilled has no selfish nature. He patiently waits for Jesus’ time. Jairus knows that there is hardly any is time left to save his daughter, more so when servants come and inform him of her daughter’s death. But amidst all these seemingly impossible situation Jairus never loses faith.

Now let us turn to the woman with haemorrhage sickness. Many people who follow Jesus to see what He would do in Jairus’ house are not bothered about their state of life. They represent people who search for miracles and evidences to have faith. They are spectators who consider themselves very wise because they are convinced that placing faith after having much evidence is the right thing to do. In reality they are absurd, the woman with haemorrhage is the real wise person. She had heard about Jesus which has drawn her to meet Him. But her coming toward Jesus is same like Jairus. She comes to get healed – not to test Jesus. She is going behind Jesus not to see what He would do in Jairus house, after which she could make a decision to get help from Him. No, she is preoccupied with her faith. She has no doubt in Jesus. Having spent all that she had on many physicians, only thing she is left with is: her FAITH. She has neither money to get healed, nor strength to continue living in that painful sickness. In this poor condition she could not be distracted by noisy crowd that surrounds Jesus. This is the key point to take away from this gospel reading. When we leave everything that distract us and focus only on Jesus and our need to be healed by Him, we would surely gain necessary grace. The trust in which the woman touched Jesus caused her to get healed instantly. The patient faith and the hope of Jairus against hopeless situation pulls Jesus to raise her daughter from death. This miracle too happens with the touch of Jesus.

Most people come to church regularly, communicate Jesus in the Eucharist but hardly anyone is touched by Him. He comes to us wholly in that tiny host but we remain just the same as we entered the church before the liturgy. It is not the failure of Jesus in the Eucharist, rather it is the faithlessness of us who receive Him without hope and distracted faith. One needs to admire at the courage the haemorrhage woman exhibits after getting healed. Her reluctance to say about her sickness to Jesus and social condition which stigmatizes her on the account of her sickness keeps her silent, but she gets courage to speak about her condition after receiving the healing grace from Jesus. This is what happens in us when we get touched by Jesus in the Eucharist. May we persistently pray for our urgent need with the hope that Jesus would act not in the time we expect Him to be but in His time. Let our faith lead us to touch Him with the undistracted faith and help others to get His healing touch.   

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