5th February >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on  Mark 5:21-43 for Tuesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time:‘They were overcome with astonishment’. (2024)

5th February >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Mark 5:21-43 for Tuesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time:‘They were overcome with astonishment’.

Tuesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)

Mark 5:21-43

Little girl, I tell you to get up

When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lakeside. Then one of the synagogue officials came up, Jairus by name, and seeing him, fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to make her better and save her life.’ Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him.

Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his cloak. ‘If I can touch even his clothes,’ she had told herself ‘I shall be well again.’ And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. Immediately aware that power had gone out from him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing round you and yet you say, “Who touched me?”’ But he continued to look all round to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. ‘My daughter,’ he said ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.’

While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official to say, ‘Your daughter is dead: why put the Master to any further trouble?’ But Jesus had overheard this remark of theirs and he said to the official, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’ And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. So they came to the official’s house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, ‘Talitha, kum!’ which means, ‘Little girl, I tell you to get up.’ The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At this they were overcome with astonishment, and he ordered them strictly not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.

Gospel (USA)

Mark 5:21-43

Little girl, I say to you, arise!

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.

Reflections (8)

(i) Tuesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

When Jesus set out walking to the house of Jairus in response to Jairus’ urgent plea for this daughter, his urgent journey was interrupted by a woman who approached Jesus furtively for healing. Yet, Jesus gave himself fully to this interruption. He could have kept walking when the woman touched his clothing, but he attended to her in a very personal way. That was the call of the present moment for Jesus, even though he was on an urgent mission. In answering that call, he was doing God’s work, and the task he initially set out to accomplish did not suffer. Jairus had his daughter restored to him. The gospel reading encourages us to pay attention to the interruptions in life. What can seem like distractions can be where the Lord is calling us to be. When matters don’t turn out as we wanted because of some unexpected turn of events, it may not be the disaster that we think it is at the time. When what we had planned doesn’t quite come to pass, it can create the space for something else to happen that we did not plan but which can have great value for ourselves and for others. Sometimes we need to embrace the interruptions, rather than just driving on with our head down towards the goal we have set for ourselves. We can misjudge where the real work lies. Sometimes the interruptions are our work, especially when they involve responding with compassion to the needs of others. When we set out on a journey, what happens on the way can be just as important as what happens at our destination.

And/Or

(ii) Tuesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

There are two stories in this morning’s gospel reading. There is the story of Jesus healing the daughter of Jairus and the story of the healing of the woman with a flow of blood. The woman’s condition not only cost her a lot of money on physicians but would have left her on the margins of the community. In virtue of her condition she would have been considered ritually unclean and would not have been able to attend the synagogue. On his way to the house of Jairus, Jesus is interrupted by this nameless woman who furtively touches the cloak of Jesus and, as a result, experiences healing of her condition. Although he is interrupted while on an important mission to heal Jairus’ daughter, Jesus looks to engage this woman in a very personal way. She simply wanted the most secretive and impersonal of contacts, the touching of Jesus’ cloak. Jesus wanted more. He sensed a woman of faith had touched him and had opened herself to the life-giving power of God’s kingdom at work within him. Jesus wanted to acknowledge this woman’s faith publicly; he wanted her to witness publicly to her own faith in him. When she comes forward to do so, Jesus assures this woman who had been excluded from the community that she belongs; he addresses her as ‘daughter’. She is as much a daughter of Abraham as anyone else. Jesus also acknowledges that while many people were touching him, her touching him was an act of faith that was life-giving for her. The story suggests that when we are heading somewhere and we are delayed or interrupted, the interruption can be just as important as the destination towards which we are journeying. Jesus shows us that the interruption can often be an opportunity to reach out to someone in a way that leaves them with a greater sense of belonging.

And/Or

(iii) Tuesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s gospel reading, two people approach Jesus for help. One was a synagogue official named Jairus, a person of some standing in the community, who approached Jesus very publicly on behalf of his dying daughter. The other was a nameless woman who would have been excluded from the synagogue because of her condition and who approached Jesus very privately on her own behalf, discreetly touching the hem of his garment. For all their differences, these two people had something in common. Their need was great, and they approached Jesus in their need. They also shared a great trust in the power of Jesus to bring life where there was death. Faith in the Lord can bring together people who otherwise might have very little else in common. The church, the community of believers, is very diverse. All of humanity is there. The gospel reading also suggests that the Lord wants to engage with each one of us in our uniqueness. He wants a personal relationship with each of us. That is why he wanted to meet the woman who touched the hem of his cloak. He needed to look into her eyes, to talk to her, to confirm her faith that led her to him. The woman who wanted to be anonymous found herself addressed by Jesus as ‘my daughter’. The Lord calls each of us by name; he relates to us as the unique individual that we are.

And/Or

(iv) Tuesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

This morning’s gospel reading gives us two stories that are interconnected. At the centre of the two stories are two adults who differ greatly from each one. We are given the name of one, Jairus; he was a synagogue official and, therefore, a person of reasonably high social status and probably well to do. The other person is a woman, whose name we are not given; she had a condition which excluded her from the synagogue and had become impoverished because of her illness. Here we have two people from opposite ends of the social and religious spectrum. Yet, they have something in common and that is their trusting faith in Jesus as the Lord and giver of life. Jairus fell at Jesus’ feet in a very public way; the woman came up behind Jesus and secretly touched his cloak. One didn’t mind being noticed; the other didn’t want to be noticed. They approach Jesus in very different ways but their faith is equally strong. Yet, it was the woman that Jesus challenged to be more public about her faith, with the question, ‘Who touched me?’ The Lord looks to us to publicly witness to our trusting faith in him. Our public witness is a support to the faith of others.

And/Or

(v) Tuesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

The two readings this morning stand in sharp contrast to each other, the killing of Absalom and the profound grief of his father David in the first reading, and the healing of the woman with the haemorrhage and the raising of Jairus’ daughter to life in the gospel reading. Of all the many characters that appear in these two readings, the one that stands out for me is the woman with the flow of blood. We are told that she came up behind Jesus through the crowd and touched his cloak. She reached out in faith to touch the Lord who was passing by, not allowing the crowd to come between her and him. Faith in the Lord is like that; it reaches out to make contact with him, refusing to be put off by obstacles, such as, in the woman’s case, the large crowd around him. It was out of her desperation that she reached towards the Lord. We are all like that to some degree. The difficult situation in which we find ourselves can move us powerfully to make contact with the Lord. Our calling is to reach out towards the Lord in good times as well as in bad times, in the words of today’s psalm, to cry out to the Lord all the day long.

And/Or

(vi) Tuesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus asks many questions on the pages of the four gospels. It can sometimes be worthwhile to notice the questions he asks and to sit with them. In this morning’s gospel reading we have one of those questions, ‘Who touched me?’ The disciples found this a very strange question, ‘You see the crowd is pressing round you and yet you say, “Who touched me?”’ The disciples were saying, ‘how can you ask that question; there are dozens of people touching you’. Yet, Jesus knew that one person touched him in a way that was different. Many people were brushing up against him; one person took the initiative to make personal contact with him. When Jesus discovered who it was, he said to her, ‘your faith has restored you to health’. The woman was seeking him out in a way that was not true of others who were around him. The Lord is always passing by; he is always among us. Sometimes we can brush up against him without paying him much attention. The woman shows us the value of a very personal and very deliberate reaching out towards the Lord. The gospel reading suggests that this is how we will experience his life-giving presence in our lives.

And/Or

(vii) Tuesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s gospel reading, two people approach Jesus in their need, one a well-to-do synagogue official and the other an impoverished woman. There is quite a difference in the way that each of them approaches Jesus. The synagogue official approaches him in a very public way, falling at Jesus’ feet and pleading with him earnestly before the crowd that was gathered around him. In contrast, the woman approached Jesus in a very private way, coming up behind him through the crowd and touching his cloak. She didn’t have the self-confidence of the synagogue official. Perhaps she felt unworthy to be approaching Jesus. After all, she was a woman; she was penniless; she had a physical condition that, under the Jewish Law, rendered her ritually unclean and prevented her from entering the synagogue. Yet, Jesus wanted a personal encounter with this woman; he wanted to engage publicly with her, just as he had engaged publicly with the synagogue official. That is why he asked aloud, ‘Who touched me?’ When the woman eventually came forward, Jesus addressed her as ‘My daughter’ and commended her for her faith. The gospel reading reminds us that the Lord does not make distinctions between people. He wants each one of us to approach him in trust as beloved sons and daughters regardless of where we find ourselves in life. There is nothing that need block us from confidently coming before the Lord in our need and opening ourselves to his personal presence to us.

And/Or

(viii) Tuesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

This morning’s gospel reading presents us with two interlocking stories. Two desperate people approach Jesus in their need, a man and a woman, a prominent person within the synagogue community and someone excluded from that community because of her physical condition. Both stories make reference to touching. Jairus pleads with Jesus to come and touch, lay his hands, on his seriously ill daughter, and Jesus goes on to take Jairus’ daughter by the hand and lift her up. The woman reaches out and touches the hem of Jesus’ cloak. In both stories, the act of touching brings life where there was death, healing where there was sickness. Both stories can speak to our own faith lives. The Lord wants to touch our lives in a healing and life-giving way, as he touched the life of Jairus’ daughter. The Lord does not relate to us at a distance. As he entered the home of Jairus and took his daughter by the hand, so he enters our homes, our lives, and takes us by the hand. He has entered fully into our human condition and meets each one of us where we are. The Lord who comes to us also desires us to come to him, like the woman in the gospel reading. As he touches our lives with his presence, he looks to us to touch his presence with our faith, like the woman. Michelangelo’s masterly painting of God creating Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel comes to mind. The Lord reaches out to touch our lives and, in doing so, moves us to reach out in faith and touch his presence to us.

Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland.

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