Jesus Heals the Woman with a Hemorrhage
Mark 5:25-34
with meditation by Mother Martha Driscoll, OCSO1
Photo Credit2
25 And there was a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well.” 29 And immediately the hemorrhage ceased; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the crowd, and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, `Who touched me?’” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had been done to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”3
A woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years—imagine it! Thin, frail, weak, anemic, she was shunned as an outcast, unclean. She was afflicted in her womanhood, in her sexuality. Full of guilt and shame, she had lost all self-esteem or possibility of self-acceptance. Who knows what she had suffered at the hands of physicians? Besides the humiliation and embarrassment of the examinations, rough hands touching her private parts, she had probably endured strange cures, perhaps even sexual abuse. She was the object of scorn, insinuation and judgments. In a word: impure.
She must not have been too poor for she had been able to go to more than one physician in search of a cure. But now, her money was depleted. And instead of improving, her condition had worsened. Yet she still had a will to live, she still had the courage to try again, she still had hope that she would be cured. She braved the crowds and fought her way close to Jesus, intent on her purpose.
Perhaps the years of sickness and humiliation had made her turn to God, to the Scriptures. Perhaps the suffering had purified her rather than breaking her spirit or making her despair. Perhaps she had found faith in divine mercy, in the God of Israel whose faithfulness is eternal and who looks after the poor, the sick and the downtrodden…Perhaps she had seen the suffering love of Jesus and had recognized him. So her seeking him out was not a desperate, selfish desire to be healed of her complaint, but rather a longing to make contact with the power of God.
“If I can only touch his cloak, I shall be well again…”
But in that contact, she was discovered…She did not want to be in the public eye. She had dared, but she was not free of shame or fear. She knew that she was legally impure. She fell at his feet and explained in front of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been cured of her complaint, her curse, her taboo.
“My daughter,” Jesus spoke to her from the heart of the Father, her Creator. The suffering love of Jesus met the suffering woman of faith. In some mysterious way, because of her illness, she was bearing the sufferings, social stigma, and humiliation of all outcasts. Jesus addressed her dignity, not her misery. He recognized himself in her and called her daughter. She was his daughter in the spirit, already a member of the family of God.
Prayer:
Jesus, for centuries upon centuries, women have felt shame, pain and embarrassment because of their monthly periods. Not all of us have the faith of the woman with the hemorrhage. Some blame God and resent having been created female. Heal us, my Lord….May we dare to carry your message of love to others by giving them the personal attention they long for. Give courage to your daughters. Give us the faith to go in peace. Amen.
Meditation excerpted from Reading Between the Lines of the Gospel copyright © 2006. Used with permission of Liguori Publications, Liguori, MO 63057. 1-800-325-9521 www.liguori.org
Photo credit: Unknown author, Scan from Grabar, Die Kunst des frühen Christentums, Public Domain, from Catacombs of Peter and Marcellinus.
The Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.