Alberic Jacovone OSB
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YEAR B
THIRTEENTH SUNDAY - 2.7.06
Wis 1,13-15.2,23-24; 2 Cor 8.7.9.13-15; Mk 5,21-43
A ‘Bleeding’ Woman & a Dead Girl
Threat
to healing at Jesus’ time & now. In today’s story, Mark talks about 2 people seeking healing &
asking Jesus to have their needs met. As we reflect on both stories, we compare
how we ourselves deal with our needs & learn how to approach the Lord at the
time of Healing Masses &
healing experiences. At Jesus’ time, people who experienced ‘loss of
blood’ (as in menstruation or any haemorrhage), & dead people or corpses,
were considered ‘unclean’. So, anyone who touched or had any physical
contact with such people became ritually ‘unclean’, & unable to
participate in the religious services of the community, until he or she had gone
through the process of purification. Both people in today’s story symbolize a
‘return’ from isolation, rejection & even from death, to normal life. In
today’s story we meet first a ‘woman who had loss of blood’ & as such
was automatically considered unclean, untouchable & unable to participate in
the normal ‘contacts’ of life. In all effect & practice, she was an
outcast in her own family & had to live in forced isolation from her
community. By curing her, Jesus restored her dignity & she was able to
return to the life of her family & her normal human relationships. In the
second story, we meet a father, who was head of the local synagogue &
belonged to one of the groups who were deeply suspicious & critical of
Jesus’ miraculous activity. Still this father approaches Jesus & pleads
for his young daughter, who was near death, indeed was already dead. In the
story, Jesus touches the dead body of the little girl &
himself catches the state of uncleanness & himself becomes an
outcast... Taking the child by the hand, Jesus said: ‘Talitha kum’, which
means: daughter (in the sense of ‘little girl’) rise!
Coping
with sickness & breakdown. As we read today’s Gospel, it’s easy to sympathize with ‘little
people’ at Jesus’ time. It’s easy to spot feelings of frustration,
rejection & humiliation, as people in today’s Gospel lose their dignity,
because of taboos or fear for contagious diseases, or even worse, when people
consider sickness, breakdowns & even death, as a curse & a punishment
from God. As we read today, it’s important to focus on “feelings”: How did
the ‘bleeding’ woman feel? How did Jairus feel at the news that her
‘little girl’ was dead? How did
Jesus feel when he defied the custom of never touching a dead body, &
instead he took the little girl by the hand & raised her? How did the people
who were present feel? &
finally, how do we feel as the story impacts on our life?.. It’s important
that this impact confronts us in our own taboos & fears, ignorance &
curses. When we are hit by sickness, breakdown or misfortune, we need to be
reminded that sickness (even cancer & aids) is not a curse nor a punishment.
There is no point in blaming God in time of sickness & suffering. We know
(& it’s natural), that -when confronted by tragedy-, we react &
respond in all sorts of irrational ways. We go through various stages of
rejection, disbelief, anger, hurt, rebellion, blame. In a word, we feel like
outcasts: untouchable & unclean. We react in strange ways: we curse
everyone including ourselves & God; we nurse
our hurts, lashing out with resentment & feeling sorry for ourselves; we rehearse
& reassess what has happened, over & over again. Finally we end in
irreversible hurting & despair, unless we reverse
the process, return to God in faith & rediscover trusting prayer. On the
contrary, see how St Paul faces the end his life: ‘I have fought the good
fight, I have run the race, I have kept the faith. I now await the crown of righteousness from God, just judge
that he is (2 Tim 4,7)
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