A Reflection for Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
“Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.” (Mark 5:24)
Jesus sounds a little bit like my grandmother in today’s Gospel. After raising a 12-year-old girl from the dead, he makes sure she gets something to eat.
Those who witnessed the little girl’s revival were “utterly astounded.” But Jesus doesn’t bask in his own glory. He doesn’t capitalize on the captive audience to offer words of wisdom. Now that the girl is breathing again, he attends to a basic need: can we get her a sandwich or something?
No doubt, it is no coincidence that the girl is 12 and that the woman Jesus heals in this passage has been suffering from hemorrhaging for 12 years. (The number 12 is significant and calls to mind the 12 tribes of Israel. Somewhat more recently, the number 12 is associated with Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast day is Dec. 12.)
Scripture scholars have explained that the woman’s community would have considered her condition “legally unclean.” According to Leviticus 15:27, “Anyone who touches them becomes unclean; that person shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.”
Yet it is through touch that she is healed. “Daughter, your faith has saved you,” Jesus tells her. “Go in peace and be cured of your affliction” (Mark 5:24).
Jesus did not let cultural or religious taboos stand in his way. He breaks through such petty barriers to restore our life. Jesus knocks down walls that seem as unbreachable as death. Nothing stops the Good Shepherd in his pursuit of his flock.
And we must not allow barriers, cultural or otherwise, to stop us from sharing the love we receive from God with those most in need of it.
