13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Do not be afraid, only have faith.

This sounds familiar – can it be that Jesus uses the same sentiments for the different events of the calming of the storm last week and the healing of the little girl and bringing her back to life?

With faith we can accomplish the seemingly impossible.

The importance of physical touch – tactile, power, embrace, union, intimacy, love

We instinctively or more readily decide as it were, we are more willing to touch or make physical contact with those we love. We keep formal distance with those with whom we have a more distant or businesslike reserve or maintain formality. We do not allow simply anyone to touch us – there are boundaries and there are occasions such as a birthday or anniversary or Christmas when we let the guard down, so to speak. Some people are tactile by their very nature and others almost violently are not tactile at all. It is not their love language.. It is not for everyone.  But there are certain conditions such as a barber, hairstylist, dentist, doctor or physiotherapist to make contact with us for medical and health reasons. Deliberate inappropriate touch however is a violation. But touch can be a powerful bond in the right conditions.

In Jewish culture touch was taboo. In Japan men and women do not hold hands in public. On Ellis Island Muslim and other women from traditional backgrounds felt violated and aggrieved that there were being examined by male doctors.

Even more taboo in Jewish culture was any haemorrhaging of fluids – blood or pus or waste, even nature’s cycles were taboo and rendered a person temporarily  unclean – not just hygienically but socially and ritually and led in those times to a curtailing of participation in worship and society. Of course leprosy was the worst of all.

In the Gospel times there was another level of violation of custom that is startling, alarming and disturbing from a Jewish viewpoint in today’s Gospel - the contact between a man and a woman, that the man was a rabbi, and she was unclean - today among orthodox Jews men ignore all conversation and contact with women, even their own wives, on a public street. It is simply not just ‘ the done thing’ but a religious rationale.

So for Jesus to make physical contact with a woman, and moreover perceived as a holy man or Rabbi, to an onlooker it would appear, and to the woman herself, a terrible risk to make, and punishable.

The woman’s faith is desperate – literally, at her wits end, we will try anything to relieve comfort and pain. But it was not so much a case of Jesus being angry or upset because of a perceived violation – it was to dialogue with the woman – to establish a relationship with her beyond a brief chance touch. Many other people literally came in contact with Jesus and met Him that day – but Jesus and she met – but in her case it was an encounter, a joyful life-changing one.

Right throughout the Gospels, there are 35 recorded miracles. They really happened. But they are also metaphors for the sickness that is sin. Sin is so insidious and poisonous that we can often rationalise and justify it to ourselves – just as we can be sick and not know it or see first symptoms and try to ignore them, so sin can be rooted in us and choke out the good.

The two healings today point to two inherent characteristics of sin. Sin is an ongoing sickness and some sin is mortal –in other words, so bad and so grave it causes us to be spiritually dead. But Jesus alone is the healer and raiser from the dead. The words of Jesus today are applicable to all of us if we have the faith to believe it: there are few words uttered by Jesus but they are enough – they are freeing, liberating, uplifting, powerful and decisive. They apply to our sickness and to our spiritual state.

‘Do not be afraid; only have faith

‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.’

 

‘get up.’

Were you ever in a situation of intimate conversation and relationship and delicacy – in a public setting - that you ignored or were oblivious to the world around you? What others saw or heard didn’t really matter – such as a reunion at an airport? We may think – ‘Who cares what anyone thinks – this is our moment, this person is all that matters, we are utterly oblivious and we couldn’t care less what others think – because we are in love.’

When we are being treated by a doctor, nurse or dentist or other professional there is another kind of privacy – a professional kind, an ethical kind, that is no-one else’s business.

Imagine being sick since 2003 – and being suddenly relieved of all symptoms today in 2015, or having a financial or relationship problem that is suddenly lifted. 12 years is a long time in anyone’s’ life. Wouldn’t you be desperate?

In both cases today, the crowds part and disappear into the background as it were- it is Jesus and his disciples alone with the sufferer – it is Jesus and the Church– the world does not understand what is going on –it doesn’t matter what the world thinks, it is the personal life-giving encounter unique to you and me that matters when we truly meet Jesus face to face in the Church’s sacraments, in intimate loving prayer and ultimately in judgment and eternity. We must de-clutter and make space for this encounter to occur in our lives and in our hearts –as it is the heart that is the place of encounter (Catechism n.2563). it is an encounter in Reconciliation and in Anointing of the Sick.

It is why I go to confession at least monthly. I want that intimacy, I need healing, I can get it if I want it desperately enough, and I can live a new life. I can be the best version of myself, the person God has called me to be, every sacramental confession is a mini-resurrection of the soul, heaven can begin now, I can be truer to my calling.

The more convinced I am of these truths the more I want to share it – I am on the spiritual first step is Sinners Anonymous – I am powerless over sin and am willing to surrender to a Higher power and now I want to share it with others. How eager I might be to recommend a particular medicine or tablet or remedy or doctor or specialist? If I take my medication I will live, if I don’t I will die. Our problem is that live thinking we are fine. I have known people suffering from bi-polar and diabetes who didn’t take their medication – rationalising to themselves and others ‘I feel fine’ – but before long the illness comes back and worse than before.

But I am spiritually recovering and am well as I can be if I seek Christ’s healing help humbly, honestly and consistently. Rather than a chance encounter, of desperate faith, I can be healed often. At every confession Christ tells me get up (serve), and ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.. ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint…get up.’