++++ Some early traditions called the
woman in today’s gospel Veronica or Bernice, but we could call her, simply and with
some delicacy, the woman in the crowd. She courageously but unlawfully hid in
the crowd to reach Jesus. Some would have stoned her, had they known, for contaminating
them and thus ostracizing them, like her, from family, friends and temple. Things
are very different today. A writer for America magazine wrote, “After such a
long journey, I would have thrown myself in his path, begging him to help me.
Instead our wounded and outcast sister "came up behind him in the crowd
and touched his cloak." She had endured for 12 years. In an instant, she
received from Jesus what no doctor in 12 years had been able to give her. Had
she just stolen a miracle? But the true miracle is what had remained healthy
all along from the beginning: her faith and courage. Jesus blest her rather
than criticizing her boldness, “Your own faith has saved you; go in peace.” He ignored
the old Levitical rules and dispelled her despair and destitution. He was God’s
new presence there instead of the temple. For him the human body too is a
temple of life as sacred as anything in creation. In the end, he paid the price.
But the woman in the crowd and his followers had already found new life, health
and salvation in him. Things again are very different today. When we
ourselves are ill or falling apart in body, mind, financially and in endurance,
it’s probably one thing after another. Author Nancy Burke wrote when she was
gravely ill and receiving weekly intravenous treatments for two years, “Somewhere
in the middle I lost my courage, and both my soul and my veins collapsed. One
day the search for a healthy vein became too painful and I pushed the needle
away and cried. A nurse brought to my side a young girl of about ten, who had
battled cancer all her life. This child smiled at me and said, ‘You should have
got one of these.’ Lifting her T-shirt, she showed me the hole that had been
cut in her abdomen for a plastic port to receive her treatments. Then she put
her hand, so small and soft, on mine and said, ‘You can take it.’ And I did.”
May we, too, be able to do so whenever we run into our own difficult times. May
the true miracle of faith and courage remain healthy in us all. May we too be
bold, healthy, and blest to “go in peace.” –Br.
Marc
