Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, February 1, 2022

Mark 5:21-43

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.” He went off with him and a large crowd followed him. There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?” But his disciples said to him, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, Who touched me?” And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”  While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.

Directly after the Lord has exorcised Legion from the possessed Gentile man across the Sea of Galilee, the Lord returns to Jewish lands.  Following St. Mark’s Gospel, the Lord has subdued the devil in the desert preparatory to opening his campaign for the salvation of the human race.  Following this he has healed many of their illnesses and exorcised their demons; overthrown the authority of the Pharisees; declared himself the Lord of the Sabbath; and lately overthrown the devils in the land of the Gentiles.  In the cure of the woman with the hemorrhage and the raising of the dead girl, the Lord plunges into the uncleanness of the human condition, purifies it, and brings it to life.

As Mathew recounts the story, he comes back to Capernaum, “his own city”.  Once he arrived, he was met by an official of the town’s synagogue, Jairus.  The man pleads with the Lord to heal his daughter whom he describes as “at the point of death”, although he must have known that she was dead.  The Lord goes with him to his house where his daughter lies.  On the way, in the narrow street, a woman with a long-standing condition came to him.  Just as Jairus did not want to disclose to the Lord that his daughter was dead for fear he would not go to her, the woman does not dare to present the reality of her illness to him.  It is too terrible, and surely he would have nothing to do with a woman who would render him unclean.  Both the man and the woman fear that Jesus would not help them if he knew the truth, but desperation drives them to him, and faith wins out over fear.  The woman touches the Lord’s clothing and she is healed.  The Lord touches the body of the little girl and he restores her to life.  

As Mark tells it, the Lord came back to Capernaum specifically to perform these miracles, just as he went to the Decapolis in order to drive Lego out of the Gentile.  And it is as if the Lord summons these people to him.  In the case of the possessed man, the man “seeing Jesus afar off, ran and adored him” (Mark 5 6).  Jairus was waiting for the Lord when he returned.  The woman with the hemorrhage pushed up to hm in the crowd.  We think that we call upon the Lord in our prayers to come to help us — that we go to him.  In fact, he summons us to him in our need.  He is aware of it before we are and he alone knows how to heal us.  And the Holy Spirit helps us to ask when we do not know what to say: “The Spirit also helps our infirmity. For, we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit himself asks for us with unspeakable groanings” (Romans 8, 26).  Knowing this helps us to grow in humility as well as in faith.