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Jun
13

(Sunday XIII OT B) The Faith that Touches

angfrayle on June 13th, 2009

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For the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we are given two healing miracles in one narrative that has been composed in a way that shows us the relationship between those two healings. Both miracles are related to life. A woman’s life ebbs away at each drop of blood that comes out of her body; a young girl dies. To both, Jesus’ gift is the vitality that flows from him. Coming as it does after the Easter and Post-Easter feasts, the story becomes an occassion for us to reflect on the way we make our own (appropriate) the life won for us by the Risen Lord.

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Guide for the Study of the Text

Here is a two in one miracle story in Mark. After creating the sentence flow for Mark 5:21-43, divide the parts of the story, using the criteria already learned: change of characters, change of setting, change of action indicate a new sub-section. Use any of these criteria in justifying the divisions you make. Note the following:

  1. For the first time in the gospel of Mark, the theme of receiving new life from Jesus is introduced.
  2. For the first time, the phrase “your faith has healed you” is introduced by Mark. This is said by the Jesus to the hemorrhaging woman. Because her story is entwined with that of Jairus’ daughter (because of the number 12!), we can ask: By whose faith was Jairus’ dead daughter raised to life? (The next time that Jesus uses the phrase is in the healing of Bartimaeus, Mark 10:52, a story that we know is related to baptism.)
  3. Compare the use of the word “faith” here and in the preceding natural miracle story about Jesus calming the storm.

Comparing the Readings

The selection from the book of Wisdom (First Reading) underlines the relationship between God and life. Death was not part of the divine will for his creatures. It was introduced by the work of the devil who envied man. The passage is the only text in the Old Testament which attributes the Fall of Man to the Devil’s envy. Thus, the liturgy alludes to the sacrament of Baptism and creates a hook with the story of Jairus’ daughter and of the hemorrhaging woman.

The selection from 2 Corinthians 8 are passages from Paul’s solicitation letter to the Corinthians. Here he is motivating the Corinthians to be generous to the collections for the mother Church in Jerusalem. The sales pitch, if you will, is anchored on the mystery of the Incarnation, of Jesus becoming poor (cf. Philippians 2:6-11) so that the Corinthians can become rich. There is also an allussion to the Eucharist in the quotation from the “Manna-incident” in Exodus.

Suggestions for the Lesson

As in the previous Sunday, we cannot bracket the Easter celebrations as we read today’s gospel and pretend that Jesus is not the Risen Lord or He is the Lord seated at God’s right hand. We are proclaiming the Risen Lord who gives us life after all!

1. One can proclaim today’s liturgy with a baptismal “twist”. The first reading already hints at the theme of the baptismal rejection of the Devil. He is the enemy who works so that man, created by God for immortality, would taste death. The gospel reading which illustrates how vitality comes out of the body of Jesus to heal the hemorrhaging woman can also become an illustration of how the sacraments, powers emanating from the Body of Christ, the Church, are tangible means by which the life won for us by Christ are appropriated by man.

2. One can do a bit of apologetics here too. The phrase “Your faith has healed you” has been interpreted in ways that are foreign to the Gospel: from a “secular” faith in oneself that allows one to do anything, to the private individualistic faith of self-proclaimed “Christians”. The way Mark uses the phrase however shows that it should be understood in a baptismal sense. The healing of Bartimaeus — the last time that Jesus uses the phrase “your faith has healed you” — gives the full meaning to the way the phrase is used in Mark 5. And it has a baptismal meaning: the enlightenment of the eyes, surrendering all, following Christ to the Cross.

3. One can also check the way the above verses are used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (hover your mouse over the CCC references for a full view of the text)

Mark 5 Catechism
vv. 21-42 CCC 994
vv. 25-34 CCC 548
v. 28 CCC 2616
v. 34 CCC 1504
v. 36 CCC 1504
CCC 2616

Mark 5:21-43
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
21And when Jesus had passed again in the ship over the strait, a great multitude assembled together unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea.
22And there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue named Jairus: and seeing him, falleth down at his feet.
23And he besought him much, saying: My daughter is at the point of death, come, lay thy hand upon her, that she may be safe, and may live.
24And he went with him, and a great multitude followed him, and they thronged him.
25And a woman who was under an issue of blood twelve years,
26And had suffered many things from many physicians; and had spent all that she had, and was nothing the better, but rather worse,
27When she had heard of Jesus, came in the crowd behind him, and touched his garment.
28For she said: If I shall touch but his garment, I shall be whole.
29And forthwith the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the evil.
30And immediately Jesus knowing in himself the virtue that had proceeded from him, turning to the multitude, said: Who hath touched my garments?
31And his disciples said to him: Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou who hath touched me?
32And he looked about to see her who had done this.
33But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
34And he said to her: Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole: go in peace, and be thou whole of thy disease.
35While he was yet speaking, some come from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying: Thy daughter is dead: why dost thou trouble the master any further?
36But Jesus having heard the word that was spoken, saith to the ruler of the synagogue: Fear not, only believe.
37And he admitted not any man to follow him, but Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.
38And they come to the house of the ruler of the synagogue; and he seeth a tumult, and people weeping and wailing much.
39And going in, he saith to them: Why make you this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.
40And they laughed him to scorn. But he having put them all out, taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.
41And taking the damsel by the hand, he saith to her: Talitha cumi, which is, being interpreted: Damsel (I say to thee) arise.
42And immediately the damsel rose up, and walked: and she was twelve years old: and they were astonished with a great astonishment.
43And he charged them strictly that no man should know it: and commanded that something should be given her to eat.
Mark 10:52
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
52And Jesus saith to him: Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw, and followed him in the way.
Philippians 2:6-11
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
6Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man.
8He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.
9For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names:
10That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth:
11And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.
CCC 994
¶994 But there is more. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: "I am the Resurrection and the life." It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood. Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life, announcing thereby his own Resurrection, though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the "sign of Jonah," the sign of the temple: he announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on the third day.
CCC 548
¶548 The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him. To those who turn to him in faith, he grants what they ask. So miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his Father's works; they bear witness that he is the Son of God. But his miracles can also be occasions for "offence"; they are not intended to satisfy people's curiosity or desire for magic Despite his evident miracles some people reject Jesus; he is even accused of acting by the power of demons.
CCC 2616
¶2616 Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief) or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman). The urgent request of the blind men, "Have mercy on us, Son of David" or "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" has-been renewed in the traditional prayer to Jesus known as the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" Healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith: "Your faith has made you well; go in peace."

St. Augustine wonderfully summarizes the three dimensions of Jesus' prayer: "He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us as our God. Therefore let us acknowledge our voice in him and his in us."

CCC 1504
¶1504 Often Jesus asks the sick to believe. He makes use of signs to heal: spittle and the laying on of hands, mud and washing. The sick try to touch him, "for power came forth from him and healed them all." And so in the sacraments Christ continues to "touch" us in order to heal us.
CCC 1504
¶1504 Often Jesus asks the sick to believe. He makes use of signs to heal: spittle and the laying on of hands, mud and washing. The sick try to touch him, "for power came forth from him and healed them all." And so in the sacraments Christ continues to "touch" us in order to heal us.
CCC 2616
¶2616 Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief) or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman). The urgent request of the blind men, "Have mercy on us, Son of David" or "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" has-been renewed in the traditional prayer to Jesus known as the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" Healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith: "Your faith has made you well; go in peace."

St. Augustine wonderfully summarizes the three dimensions of Jesus' prayer: "He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us as our God. Therefore let us acknowledge our voice in him and his in us."

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