Lord’s Day Reflection: ‘Daughter, your faith has saved you’

By Father John Luke Gregory, OFM*

Today, the Gospel story powerfully shows us the dramatic relationship between illness and death. It is not intended to frighten us or make us sink into anguish, but to show us the true remedy for what we would otherwise perceive only as the inevitable end of earthly life.

At the center of the story are two women: one, suffering from persistent hemorrhages for twelve long years; the other, a little girl, the daughter of the head of the synagogue, who died at the age of twelve.

Two women. With all the wealth that this brings. A new life is born from the woman's womb, but the first of the two women experiences a harsh confrontation with illness: instead of giving birth, she has been bleeding continuously for twelve years, and blood is the main symbol of life.

In the Scriptures, the woman is often the image of the people who await the beauty of their relationship with the Lord, described as the bridegroom who leads human life to fullness. The girl, in fact, is twelve years old, the age which, for Jewish girls, marks the entry into the season of betrothal and the expectation of a husband and motherhood.

Marriage and motherhood are two events of joy, fullness, openness to the future and hope. But over these two women hangs the painful specter of illness, sterility and death.

This is the experience of the people who have abandoned the Lord. It is the experience of every man and woman whenever they claim to do it on their own, without trusting in the Lord, without waiting with desire and passion for the encounter with the Lord and Savior.

Isn't this a sad reality that we often have before our eyes?

The lives of the two women change radically with the passage of Jesus and the encounter with Him.

The woman with the haemorrhage is now at the end of her strength, she has tried a thousand times, she has resorted to all human remedies, but her condition has always worsened. Now, purified of illusions and deceptions, she can count only on the only credible and reliable hope. She defies every rule of purity and every cultural convention and uses her last energies to “touch” Jesus, in the hope of entering into a relationship with Him. And behold, this contact with Jesus frees her from death. It is Jesus himself who reveals the quality of this “touch”: “Daughter, your faith has saved you” (Mk 5:34). Many surrounded the Lord as he passed, but it was only through contact with this woman that Jesus felt strength come out of him.

Even the leader of the synagogue dares to defy the judgment and condemnation of his community and addresses Jesus as one addresses God himself, asking for salvation for his little girl. And when the news of the girl's death seems to freeze all hope, Jesus exhorts him: “Do not be afraid, only have faith!” (Mk 5:36).

Jairus perseveres in faith and the Lord transforms death into sleep: “talitha kum!” »

Jesus is the presence of God himself, faithful to his promises, who brings all hope to fulfillment, who generates life even where death seems to reign. Jesus is the true Bridegroom. In fact, those who wait for him, with desire and availability of encounter, receive the gift of salvation and life.

The Church is the Bride of Christ, moreover, by virtue of baptism; in the Church, each of us is a “bride,” ready for the Bridegroom.

To the question: what is the opposite of death? The obvious and immediate answer that we would all give is: life. The Gospel takes us beyond the apparent and the obvious, it takes us deeper and seems to give us another answer. What is the opposite of death? Faith!

Life is fragile, it is always exposed to the danger of death. Faith is stronger than life, because it leads to eternal life, which does not suffer the threats of death.

True faith overcomes the drama, darkness and inevitability of death.

True faith opens us to a relationship with God, source of life and conqueror of death.

True faith generates charity and pushes us to serve God and our brothers. Saint Paul taught us this when he wrote to the Corinthians:

“(Brothers and sisters), now that you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all seriousness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this gracious work. I do not say this as a commandment, but to prove by the seriousness of others that your love also is genuine” (cf. 2 Cor 8:7).

* Custody of the Holy Land