Access to Christ in faith

The importance of touch for healing is a common theme in the New Testament and in Mark’s presentation of a story within a story. The woman with a hemorrhage needed to touch Jesus, even only his clothes. And she was healed. But Jairus’ daughter was touched by Jesus; and she, who was physically dead, was healed and came back to life.

What drove the legally unclean woman to break the law by touching Jesus, excluded as she was from normal human interaction? Faith in the Great Healer. What persuaded Jairus, a religious official, to forget the synagogue’s opposition to Jesus, to seek Jesus’ help for his daughter? Faith in the Great Healer. But the faith required of Jairus was to believe that one who breaks the laws of ritual purity can restore his daughter’s life.

The two episodes, taken together, as one commentary puts it, demonstrate not only Jesus’ healing power, even over death, but also the legitimacy of his subordination of religious regulations to the value of human beings. This is not to say, first of all, that Jairus’ daughter and the woman lived on. The woman surely died eventually; and Jairus’ daughter would have to die again. None of us escapes death. Secondly, Jesus does not disregard the law but simply points out that the law was made for man and not man for the law. For this, the Jerusalem authorities would seek his death.

Jairus, the officials of the Jewish synagogue and the woman with the hemorrhage who felt she needed Jesus, are paradigms of how we approach Christ in faith. If we must approach Jesus and be acceptable to Him, faith is a necessary disposition. For Jesus to effect in us the deeper saving grace or the deeper saving reality which we seek whether it be forgiveness, healing or transformation, we must have faith. "Your daughter is dead." This skeptical announcement of the crowd to Jairus raises the question of Jairus’ faith not only in Jesus’ healing power but in his power to raise the dead. The announcement of that news betrays the crowd’s own lack of faith. But that the raising of Jairus’ daughter of life foreshadows the supreme miracle of the Resurrection and the guarantee of all that we believe in. This may be considered an anticipated paschal proclamation of Christ, the paschal mystery which forever would be the foundation and proclamation of our faith.

If we must seek easy access to Christ in His mystery, in His Person, in His life, in His Passion, in His Death and in His Resurrection, we too have a faith like that of the woman with a hemorrhage or that of Jairus. For if we do believe in Jesus, we cannot fail to take on, in every instance of life, the confident demeanor of Jairus trusting Jesus would raise his daughter to life; and the faith of the woman with the hemorrhage believing that contact even with Jesus’ garments has the power to heal. We get to Christ in Faith.

Sunday Ordinary Week 2 Cor 8:7-15 Mk. 5: 21-43

The Jesuit Vocation Promotions Team invites male college students and young professionals to a Vocation Seminar. It is intended for those who are considering the priesthood or brotherhood in the religious life. It will be held on July 23, 2006 Sunday, 8 AM to 5 PM at the GARAGE, Sonolux Bldg. Ateneo de Manila University Campus, Loyola Heights, Quezon City. For more details please contact the Jesuits Vocation Promotions Office at telephone number 4266101 or e-mail at [email protected] You can also visit the website of the Philippine Jesuits at www.jesuits.ph