Faith for “Evangelium Vitae” : A Gospel Lesson from the faith of the Woman Suffered from Hemorrhage and Jairus – Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

 Imagine what it would be like to see your loved one going through a worsening sickness, making you wonder if the condition might lead to death. Imagine what it would be like to struggle with an illness for many years, for which no doctors can help. If you were in a situation like these, who would you turn to?

You say, Jesus.

But, would we look up to Jesus just because we need his healing power?  How about our faith – our faith in him?

Do we truly believe in him?  And how do we prove our faith being genuine? 

Today’s Gospel Reading (Mark 5:21-43) gives two testimonies on how important steadfast faith in him is to be benefited from Jesus’ divine healing power. One is of a woman, who suffered from terrible hemorrhage for 12 years. The other is of twelve-year-old daughter of Jairus, a respected synagogue official.

At first, Jairus came forward to Jesus, falling at his feet and earnestly pleading to him to visit his daughter to lay his hand on her as she was at an hour of death. Jairus must have hoped for a miracle to reverse his daughter’s condition from dying to living even in the last minute. So, it was rather an emergency.

Jesus obviously consented to Jairus request and began moving to reach out for his daughter. But, Jesus had to go through a pressing crowd to get to Jairus’ house. It was like moving through a sardine-packed commuter train car during rush hours in Tokyo.

Then, there appeared a woman, who had been suffering from incurable and worsening hemorrhage for 12 years. For these years, she sought for a cure to many doctors and spent all her assets for this. But, none of these doctors could help her but left her in the worsening suffering. So, out of desperation, the woman pushed herself through the crowd and stretched her arm and touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak, saying, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured”(Mark 5:28).

As soon as she touched Jesus’ cloak, the woman’s hemorrhage was cured. But, at the same time, Jesus recognized the power had gone out of him and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?”(Mark 5:29-30).

Jesus was very cognizant of the movement of his power to recognize a sudden change in the power within him, confronting the phenomena that he was not anticipating. He was on his way through dense crowd to extend his power on the dying daughter of Jairus upon his request. In a way, Jesus’ mission was interrupted by the women taking Jesus’ power to her for her healing.

The disciples were clueless as to what Jesus asked (Mark 5:31). But Jesus looked around the crowd to see who had touched his cloth. And the woman stepped forward to him and told the whole truth about what she did: touching his cloak, falling in front of him (Mark 5:33).

Did Jesus rebuked her for touching his cloak and taking his power on her?

No.

In response, Jesus said to her, ”Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction”(Mark 5:34).

When Jesus confronted, asking, who had touched his cloak, the woman could have been terrified, for abstracting the power of Jesus by touching his garment. In spite of this, the women took her courage to come forward with truth. And Jesus publically acknowledged her for her faith and the fact that it contributed the cure of her illness. What resulted from the woman’s faith and honesty and courage was peace and health.

In the meantime, a bad news arrived! It said that Jairus’ daughter, who was waiting for Jesus’ arrival died – so bother Jesus any more (Mark 5:35). Jairus remained patient – though Jesus’s trip to reach out for his dying daughter was delayed because of the woman touching Jesus’ cloak. His daughter could have been saved if Jesus had arrived and laid his hand over her. Jairus did not complain. He did not blame the woman, either.

Jesus, on the other hand, disregarded this bad news and told Jairus, “Do not be afraid; just have faith”(Mark 5:36). Jesus gave grieving Jairus a twofold commandment: not to be afraid and to keep his faith in him. Basically, Jesus did not want Jairus to let his grief-driven fear and anxiety ruin his faith. Remember, fear can wreck havoc on faith (Matthew 14:22-33), while faith is antidote against fear (Matthew 8:23–27//Mark 4:35–41//Luke 8:22–25). The bottom line of this twofold commandment was to ensure that Jairus would keep his faith though death of his daughter could shake his faith. Just as he did not let the bad news of Jairus’ daughter’s death interfere his mission to save her by disregarding it, Jesus made sure that Jairus’ faith was not anyway compromised by grief-driven fear over his daughter’s death.

So, Jesus finally came to the house where Jairus’ deceased daughter was laid and did not allow anyone but three of his disciples, Peter, James, and his younger brother, John, to accompany him to the scene (Mark 5:37). This way, there is no distraction. And, Jesus could let these three disciples to witness what he was about to do on Jairus’ daughter. But, why Jesus brought Peter, James, and John, with him to the scene?

Jesus must have had a particular thought on them among the twelve. In fact, he took these three to let them witness his Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1–8//Mark 9:2–8//Luke 9:28–36) and his agonizing prayer in the garden to enter his Passion (Matthew 26:36-46// Mark 14:32-42// Luke 22:39-46).

Jesus knew that Peter would lead his Church later (John 20:15-17) with the authority, symbolized with the keys (i.e. Matthew 16:19) and called James and John “boanerges”(sons of thunder)(Mark 3:17). In fact, James was the first among the twelve to be martyred (Acts 12:1-2), while John endured persecution in exile until his death (Revelation 1:9; cf. John 20:22).

As Transfiguration signaled for Jesus’ Resurrection and his agonizing prayer evoked the imminence of Jesus’ death, Jesus really wanted these three disciples to understand the highlights of his Paschal Mystery: his death and resurrection. So, it makes sense that Jesus took them with him so that they could witness directly how Jesus’ healing power can even raise a dead person back to life.

Outside, people were weeping and wailing loudly with commotion (Mark 5:38). To this, Jesus confronted them, saying, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep”(Mark 5:39). But, Jesus was ridiculed for saying that the daughter of Jairus were not dead but sleeping (Mark 5:40a).

Those who ridiculed Jesus certainly did not understand that Jesus was implying resurrection when he referred Jairus’ daughter’s death as sleeping (i.e. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-16). 

Jesus could have preached these ignorant people. But, his priority was to work on the daughter. And he let her father, Jairus, and mother to enter the room where she was laid (Mark 5:40b).

So, Jesus took the daughter of Jairus and laid his hand on her, commanding, “Talitha koum!,” (Little girl, I say to you, arise!)(Mark 5:41). Then, immediately, not only she rose from the dead but walked around, to the astonishment of Peter, James, John, and her parents (Mark 5:42).

Here, Jesus demonstrated his divine power even over death, after demonstrating it over the storm, as we reflected in last Sunday’s Gospel Reading (Mark 4:35-41). And, an important lesson both from this Sunday’s Gospel Reading (Mark 5:21-43) and last Sunday’s Gospel Reading (Mark 4:35-41) is the necessity of faith. It is indispensable to keep our hearts from being plagued with fear and anxiety (Mark 4:35-41) and to be benefited from Jesus’ healing power, which can not only heal the sick but also raise the dead (Mark 5:21-43).

The First Reading (Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24) reminds us that God is all about life. Death was not in His Creation originally. It was brought by Satan through by tempting Eve and Adam to fall (Genesis 3:19), by the envy of the devil (Wisdom 2:24). This resulted in disturbances of God’s Creation, including human life. But, God the Father has sent His only begotten Son to us so that His original intent to keep life can be restored. For this, God the Father made the Theos-Logos incarnated (John 1:1, 14) in the human flesh of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit over the womb of Mary the Virgin, the Immaculate Conception (Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:35). This way, Jesus can be touched, as the woman who suffered from hemorrhage did to be cured (Mark 5:27-29), and can touch to heal and raise a person from the dead, as in the case with Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:41-42).

For Jesus’ mission to restore life from sickness and even from death, we must understand that we do not act out of our selfishness. A good example of this principle is how Jairus was. He did not complain even though the woman, who suffered from hemorrhage, delayed Jesus’ arrival to heal on his dying daughter. Had he were so self-centered, Jairus could have been angry at the woman. Rather, he let Jesus lead the situation. This way, Jesus was able to meet the need of the woman and the need of Jairus. And this is reflected in the Second Reading (2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15), as it calls us to share according to each other’s need to honor the fact that Jesus, though he was rich, became poor for the sake of our needs, including the need to have our life restored for its original perfection.

God is against death as it was not in his original Creation. But, Satan’s envy brought death into the Creation through Adam and Eve. Of course, our pro-life God the Creator did not let death prevail over the Creation, especially over His most beloved Creation, with His own image (Genesis 1:27; Wisdom 2:23). For this reason, He has sent the Son, incarnated in the human flesh of Jesus, letting him become poor for our sake, dying as poor for our salvation – so that our damaged life can be restored, even upon death! But, we must keep our faith steadfastly and not to act selfishly. We must live a life of faith so that we can overcome our disposition to be self-centered. This way, we can imitate Christ in living for the sake of others’ needs, not just for our own needs. And this is a life of being pro-life, our way of fighting against what St. John Paul II called “culture of death”, as he reflected in his “Evangelium Vitae” (1995).

Life of faith in Christ means life of “Evangelium Vitae”, letting Christ's life-restoration power work most efficaciously - fighting against the "culture of death" brought by Satan.