Secret wounds

We do not know her name. She is an insignificant woman, lost in the midst of the crowd that follows Jesus. She does not dare speak with him as did Jairus, the synagogue official, who managed to have Jesus head to his house. She would never be that lucky.

No one knows that she is a woman marked by a secret sickness. The teachers of the Law have taught her to look on herself, so long as she has hemorrhages, as an unclean woman. She has spent many years looking for someone to cure her, but no one has succeeded to heal her. Where could she find the health she needs to live with dignity?

Many people among us have similar experiences in life. Humiliated by secret wounds that no one knows about and without the courage to confide their illness to anyone, they look for help, peace and consolation without knowing where to find them. They feel guilty when many times they are just victims.

They are good people who feel unworthy to draw near in order to receive Christ in communion. They are pious Christians who have suffered in an insane manner because they were taught to see everything related to sex as dirty, humiliating and sinful. They are believers who, at the end of their lives, do not know how to break the chain of supposedly sacrilegious confessions and communions. Can they ever know peace?

According to the account, the sick woman hears about Jesus and senses that she is in the presence of someone who can pull impurity out of her body and of her whole life. Jesus does not speak of worthiness or unworthiness. His message speaks of love. His person radiates healing power.

The woman looks for her own way to meet Jesus. She does not feel she has the strength to look him in the eye; she will come up behind him. She is ashamed to speak to him of her illness, so she will act quietly. She cannot physically touch him, hence, she will just touch his cloak. It does not matter. Nothing matters. For her to feel clean, her enormous trust in Jesus is enough.

He says it himself. This woman does not have to be ashamed before anyone. What she has done is not bad. It is an act of faith. Jesus has his way of curing secret wounds, and to say to those who seek him:

          Daughter, son, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.

June 28, 2015
13 Ordinary Time (B)
Mark 5, 21-43