Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Gospel is a favorite of mine. It’s an example of how Jesus’ compassion is inclusive. This is a time when his contact with a corpse or with women who were bleeding would have made him as a Jewish teacher ritually unclean. And yet Jesus takes the hand of a dead girl to raise her up and heals the woman calling her “Daughter.”
This double story Mark tells sandwiches the woman with the hemorrhage in between the beginning and end of the story of Jairus’ daughter. That points us to pay special attention to “the filling” of the sandwich. While Jairus approaches Jesus directly and begs for him to help his daughter, the bleeding woman who has been ostracized from male company for twelve years, sneaks up on Jesus, reaching for just the hem of his clothes. Jesus senses his power being tapped and waits, despite the dismissal of his disciples, for the woman to present herself and claim her healing. Rather than the reprimand she fears and expects, Jesus praises her for her faith, extends peace and tells her to be well. There’s an important lesson here for us. We can’t really sneak up on Jesus, even when sometimes that’s all we feel worthy of. He wants to encounter us, affirm that we are in fact his daughter or son, and to send us on our way with peace and more wholeness. Let’s pray for the grace of faith to ask for what we need and be confident that Jesus cares and will respond.
—Sr. Laura Leming, FMI