How many of you find that medical bills are just way too expensive? Raise your hand if you agree with me. We have insurance. The woman today that we hear in the Gospel did not have insurance. She was afflicted with this hemorrhage for 12 years and she had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and spent all that she had, so she was completely destitute. She spent everything that she had trying to find a cure.
Even as advanced as we are in the medical age, we probably, at different times in our lives, have discovered that there may have been times when a doctor can’t figure out what is wrong with us. Sometimes, doctors don’t even know what to label something or, even more so, maybe how to treat it. We know that there are chronic conditions or some cancers that will never go away. Some people struggle with autoimmune diseases, which are very hard to diagnose and even harder to care for.
Think about this woman with great compassion. She has been suffering for 12 years. She’s seen doctor after doctor, and she had yet to discover any healing, and all she wanted was to be cured.
In the First Reading, we hear, “God did not make death.” I think it is really important that we hear that and know that: “God did not make death.” Death was not a part of God’s plan. Illness is a consequence of that. God did not desire illness. How did this happen? How do we have death? How do we have illness? At the end of this reading, it says, “By the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to his company experience it.”
A lot of times when we look at original sin, we tend to look at Adam and Eve. Even before Adam and Eve was the war that happened in heaven and fallen angels who were led by Satan, and it was because of his envy that death entered the world. It was never a part of God’s design or God’s plan. Why then does God permit it? Why then does God allow this to happen?
In the Second Reading we hear that we were designed and created to be imperishable. If you think about fruit, perishable fruit, or anything goes bad. We were not designed for that. We were not designed to crumble, to go away. We were designed to be imperishable, and God still has a way of doing that because he sent Jesus in this world to suffer to die and to rise. Jesus promised to each and every one of us that if we suffer with Him and if we die with Him, we will rise with Him. God’s design for each and every one of you is that you are imperishable. That we have this everlasting life in heaven, but because of our fallenness, because of sin we do struggle with illness, and we struggle with death.
The interesting thing in the Gospel is that Jesus does two miracles, and these two miracles are intertwined with one another. It starts with Him going to raise this woman from the dead, and during that, the woman who has been hemorrhaging comes to Him and touches His clothes, and then He heals her and goes on to raise this this young child from the dead.
What is being revealed to us is there is a connection between sickness and death. There’s also a connection between sin and death. Now some of that sin is just the reality of corporate sin or fallen sin, but sometimes we too contribute to sin and sometimes that sin impacts us impacts our health and it might impact those that we live around us.
What is so beautiful is in both of these cases, they had faith. This woman who was exiled had faith. If anyone was bleeding like that, they were exiled from the community and they were considered impure. They weren’t allowed to come around anyone. Something in this woman stirs so much about Jesus. She’s heard about this one and she believes that He can forgive her sins. She’s willing to enter into this crowd, this group of people that’s pushing so hard that Jesus doesn’t even to know who’s touching Him.
She goes up to Him and she thinks, “If I just touch his cloth, if I just touch his garments, I can be healed.” She takes that brave step, she enters into the crowd, she reaches out and touches His garment and immediately she is healed. Jesus feels the power come out of Him.
He asked His Disciples, “Who touched me?” The Disciples respond saying, “Lord there are people all around you, everybody is touching you.” Jesus replied, “No, someone touched me. Someone was healed.” He turns around to this woman and she prostrates before Him and He says to her, “Daughter, your sins are forgiven, your faith has saved you.” In that moment He is revealing that He can not only forgive sin, but He can heal. It is because of her courage, and because of her faith to go to that that healing happens.
Then we hear at the death of this young girl who is 12 years old. He goes to her house and the people at the house are saying to him, “Don’t trouble Jesus any longer, she’s already died. Too late, just let him go.” He says, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
He walks into the room and there’s a commotion. People are wailing, they’re screaming, they’re crying. Think of a 12-year-old dying. Jesus says, “Why this commotion and weeping?” He is the author of life; He can bring anyone back to life. He goes over to her, He touches her and says, “Talitha Koum. Little girl, I say to you, arise.” At that moment she stands up and walks. She’s restored to such health that He says, “She’s probably hungry give her something to eat.”
Our Lord has the power to heal. Even when we find ourselves at different points in our lives or we’ve seen doctor after doctor, and we’ve tried to be cured and haven’t found that healing. We do believe in miracles. We do believe that Jesus does intercede, and He can heal us. It takes faith.
That is all it takes, He says, but sometimes our faith wanes. Sometimes because of our sin our mind gets clouded and we start to think, “I don’t know if Jesus could heal me or if Jesus would heal me,” and because of that we stop believing.
I just invite you, if you’re going through something like that in your life right now, just have faith. If we don’t have the faith, we find our faith’s lacking or we find it cloudy or struggling, we can ask Jesus, say, “Jesus, can you please increase my faith.” When our faith is increased, we will discover that He can work miracles beyond anything that could be done here on earth because He made you to be imperishable.
As we come forward today to receive the Eucharist, think about this woman that just believed, ‘if I just touch his cloth, I can be healed.’ You touch the Body of Christ, not only do we touch the Body of Christ, but we also receive Him into us and so He is able to go to the depths of that place of us that needs healing and bring us once more to life.
As we are brought to life and we go out with the Body of Christ in us, the people just ‘touch your garment’ and people can interact with you in some way, they too can be healed.
At every Mass we pray for those who are sick. In a special way we pray for anyone who is suffering from illness, especially for anyone that is unable to find that cure or even that diagnosis. Let’s pray for that increase of faith not only in ourselves but in all of them, so that we can experience these feelings that God desires and we can live an incorruptible life.
