Gospel: 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 and pressed upon 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 Jesus, “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.
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Reflection:
What does an
encounter with Jesus do to us? It gives us hope and it cures us. There’s a
story of a woman who had a terminal sickness. She was told by her doctor that
she only had two months to live. But this woman was a woman of strong faith.
She attends Holy Mass every day and does other things to strengthen her faith
in Jesus.
When she was told that
she had two months to live, she told her doctors, I will prove all of you wrong
I’m going to beat this severe sickness with my faith in Jesus. True enough,
after two months the woman of faith was still alive and totally free from her
severe sickness.
We have in our
gospel two stories of faith, hope and healing coursed through an encounter with
Jesus. The first one is the story of
Jairus a synagogue official whose daughter was in death throes. Jairus went to
Jesus to plead Him to cure his young daughter. Seeing the faith of Jairus Jesus
went to his house to cure and bring back to life Jairus’ daughter.
The second story of
faith hope and healing is an unnamed woman who for twelve long years had been
suffering severe hemorrhages. She heard that Jesus would be passing by her way. It gave her hope and it further strengthened her faith. So she did her best to
touch even the cloak of Jesus for she believed that by simply touching it she
would be healed. And she was able to touch Jesus cloak and was indeed
immediately healed.
There could be a
third story of faith, hope and healing by Jesus. And this third story could be
your own story. What is your testimony of faith, hope and healing by Jesus?
Share it so that others faith and hope in Jesus could be strengthened!
All of us one way or
the other have our own story of encounter with Jesus let us not keep this story within
us. Let us share it so that others may know Jesus and hopefully have also an
encounter with Him. – Marino J.
Dasmarinas
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