Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
One of the miracles in today’s Gospel passage from St. Matthew relates the brief story of the woman suffering hemorrhaging for 12 years. While reading this passage I saw her story in a different way—how she approached Jesus and how Jesus responded to her. There are slightly different versions of this encounter in Luke (8:43-48) and Mark (5:25-34) and is always placed right in the middle of the miracle of Jesus’ raising the Official’s daughter.
In this story, Jesus demonstrates a most important component of genuine love in his encounter with this long suffering woman. Jesus immediately cures her when she touches the tassel on his cloak but, maybe even more importantly, he openly acknowledges her in the midst of a pressing crowd of people. “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you”, Jesus exclaims. She had faith that Jesus would physically heal her but she had lived in shame, considered unclean by everyone for many long years she had not the courage to directly approach him. In her encounter with Jesus she unexpectedly experienced HIM—the powerful beauty of mercy and acceptance and Love. With Jesus, she experienced the wholeness of Him…the wholeness of Love. Jesus called her out of hiding, darkness, and shame into the open light of freedom. In this woman’s case, who can say for certain whether her physical healing or her ‘heart and soul’ healing was more miraculous. I believe when we go directly to Jesus (or to his Blessed Mother for intercession) we receive exactly what we are in need of at that particular time. If we are faithful, as the woman in this passage, we may be surprised!
There are so very many petitions we place at the feet of Jesus each and every day of our lives. At times we see or experience physical or mental healing and praise God for this! At times we may not see nor experience what we expect. Let us open ourselves to the unexpected when it comes to Jesus. On this day, let us reflect on our approach to Jesus. May we boldly ask for healing in our prayer, fully aware that Jesus knows (much better than we ourselves) what truly needs to be healed in our body, mind, soul, and spirit. May we be open to—even expectant of—the surprises Jesus works on our behalf and the invitation deeper friendship that Jesus always extends to us. Amen.
--Gail Lyman