Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

I read the gospel passage many times over in preparation for this homily. I am intrigued with the fact that the healing of the woman with hemorrhage is not one of Jesus’ intentional healings recorded in the gospel. In other words, this healing is unlike the raising of the dead girl to life or other healing where Jesus performs an intentional action for the healing to occur. This woman, on the other hand, is somehow able to tap into the power that Jesus had. In fact, the gospel reading suggests, Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, asked “Who touched my clothes?” (Mk 5:30). As the disciples tried to reason it out with Jesus, there were many people touching him. But there was only one person who was able to tap into Jesus’ power. Moreover, she did this not by touching him but merely touching his clothes. Later, Jesus calls her action “faith.” Sadly, though, there is no explanation of her “faith.” It seems to me that what Jesus meant by faith is very different from what we mean by faith. This woman was not baptized; she was not a Christian; she was not even a Jew. We are not sure that she believed in Jesus as Christ, the messiah, the Son of God the way we believe it. Yet she is able to steal power from Jesus and be rewarded for her faith. What is it that this woman has that I do not? How can I tap into God’s power in such a simple yet rewarding way? These are the questions that I am struggling with this week. And I invite you to struggle with me.

Let me offer three insights that might help us.

a) The first thing I would like to know is what the woman thought about Jesus. There were many faith healers and magicians during the time of Jesus who claimed to have extraordinary powers. However, they performed for a price. The woman in today’s gospel, on the other hand, did not come to Jesus like one would come to a faith healer. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured" (Mk 5:28). The reading gives me the impression that in spite of her being a foreigner both in culture and religion, she had immense confidence in God. She knew and believed personally in the God revealed in today’s first reading. The book of Wisdom says, “For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome…. For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him” (Wisdom 2:23). Somehow, this woman knew this God and knew that Jesus has something to do with this God. This personal intimacy with God is the first key to tapping the power of God.

b) The second key to tapping the power of God is the woman’s ability to abandon her life completely into the hands of this God. When Jesus became aware of that power had gone out from him (Mk 5:29) and inquired who had touched him, the woman’s instinctive reaction is very revealing. She allows herself to be totally disarmed. There were no pretentions, no pride, no self defence, no excuses and no justifications. She merely told Jesus the “whole truth” (Mk 5:33). Somehow, this woman had the ability to completely abandon her life in God’s presence. No wonder that in the second miracle, Jesus put out of the room anyone who could not have total confidence in him. It is not uncommon for me to come before God with conditions. I want God but God should make no demands on me. I want God to forgive me but there are people I cannot forgive. I say I trust God but I still trust wealth, power, and my abilities more than God. I say I love God but I still have prejudices, anger and jealously. The woman who was healed teaches me that to tap the power of God I must allow God to totally disarm me.

c) The woman teaches us another lesson for our relationship with God. On the one hand she approached Jesus and touched him, On the other hand, when she realized what had happened, she approached Jesus with fear and trembling. This power to approach with total confidence and abandonment and yet with fear and trembling is what I call “a sense of awe before God.” She knew the power of God and she knew that she must respect it, reverence it, worship it and acknowledge it. No wonder that she is touched with the same power that she acknowledged. To tap God’s power, we must first acknowledge it with a sense of awe.

Today, at this Eucharist, we won’t just touching Jesus’ garments. We will be touching Jesus himself. When we receive communion in our hands, could we touch Jesus like the woman did? It is possible for us to tap into the power of God… if only we can know God and abandon ourselves into the hands of our awesome God.

Fr. Satish Joseph