In today’s Gospel we hear of the curing of Jairus’ daughter and of the woman with the hemorrhage. The earliest examples of Christian art are found in the catacombs. There is a painting of the healing of the woman with a hemorrhage in the catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter. So, we see that this event was important and inspiring to the early Christians. They were astounded by the presence of Jesus in their lives. It proclaimed to them the power and authority of Jesus and showed then who he was.
Both situations in today’s Gospel are completely hopeless. The woman with the hemorrhage was culturally and religiously unclean. Everything she touched would have become unclean. She could not go to the temple to pray, and all her family and neighbors were avoiding her. This was her condition for years. The young girl was taken for already dead. The neighbors and family had already started the formal wailing associated with a death. When Jesus arrived to do a healing, they ridiculed him so much that he had to throw them out of the house. In both situations there is no way forward in life: the sick woman was socially and religiously dead and the young girl was physically dead.
Jairus and the women with the hemorrhage recognize that Jesus has authority and power. The sick woman had invested her time, fortune, and life in thing that only made her worse. In the end she turns around the values of her life and goes to Jesus. The father of the sick girl goes straight to Jesus, right from the beginning. In both cases faith produces new life. Jairus had to maintain his faith and constancy in the face of the ridicule, despair, and disbelief of his neighbors and extended family.
Today’s Gospel calls us to recenter our lives on the person of Jesus and remain constant. Whether this conversion is after a long journey of looking for our center in many things or in the face of constant ridicule and doubts from those around us, we a called to give a clear witness of faith.
Do you think anyone around you is utterly astounded by your way of life and faith?
