Today's Gospel
Jesus the Healer
6 min
The First Ever Guide to Eucharistic Consecration
This isn’t just another book. It’s an invitation to participate in a sacred journey—a spiritual pilgrimage.
Gospel
Mt 8:18-22
And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him; and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Ja´irus by name; and seeing him, he fell at his feet, and besought him, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.
And there was a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well.” And immediately the hemorrhage ceased; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the crowd, and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had been done to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. When they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, he saw a tumult, and people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a tumult and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Tal´itha cu´mi”; which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and walked; for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Readings are from Dynamic Catholic’s New Testament Bible: RSV Catholic Edition
God hasn't stopped speaking.
We've stopped listening.
Discover how God is speaking to you today and how that will change all your tomorrows.
Transcript
Jesus the Healer
Jesus is always healing people. Every time we read about Jesus in the Gospels, He's healing somebody. Very often we place these situations, these stories, these parables apart from ourselves. We place them as separate from ourselves. We don't think of ourselves as being deaf. We don't think of ourselves as being blind. We don't think of ourselves as being in need of healing. But the reality is, we all need healing in all sorts of different ways. If you think about the four aspects of the human person, physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual, we probably all need a little bit of healing every single day in all four of those areas. But we don't look for healing. We don't ask for healing. In this reading, we see two epic, I mean, just fantastic stories of healing. The first one is we read one of the rulers of the synagogue comes to Jesus and begs him, okay, begs him, falls at his feet, saying, "My daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live." When you read the reading, what do you think about? Do you think about this leader of the synagogue? Do you think about the fact that most of his peers were persecuting Jesus? Maybe even he was involved in persecuting Jesus, but now that his daughter is sick, he's coming to Jesus, he's begging. Do you see all the politics or do you see the person? Do you see a desperate father with a sick child who would do anything to help his little girl get better, get well, live?
When we read the gospels, if we strip the humanity out, we not only dehumanize the people in the stories, but we dehumanize ourselves, and we dehumanize the people we interact with every day. And so the gospels are rich with humanity, and they're rich with lessons for humans. And so here's this father, he comes, okay? He's begging Jesus. But now, while that's happening, we cut away to another thing that's going on. You got a woman, she's been sick, she's been hemorrhaging for 12 years, okay? Everyone's trying to get close to Jesus. You can imagine what it was like. Everyone's trying to get close to him. So what does she say? Does she say, "Oh, I need to meet Jesus?" Does she say, "Oh, I need Jesus to come to my house for dinner?" And does she say, "Oh, I need to have a sit down with Jesus. I need Jesus to heal." No. She says, "If I can just touch his garments, I'll be healed." She understood how powerful Jesus was. She understood the power of God. She understood the power of faith. She didn't need anything special. She just realized if I could just touch his garments, I'll be healed of this disease that none of the doctors have been able to heal me of for 12 years. And she does. And she is. Now I think about that in context of the Eucharist. Let's think about this woman, okay? She believes that if she could just touch Jesus' clothes, that she'll be healed of this horrendous disease, what would that woman believe about the Eucharist? What would she believe if she could go to church next Sunday and receive Jesus, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist, consume the Savior of the world, the Son of God, the King of Kings, the Messiah? What would her reverence towards the Eucharist be?
And then we go back to the other story, the synagogue official, his daughter. His servants come and they say, "Stop bothering the man. Your daughter's died." Jesus says, "Don't listen to them." He says that to us all the time. He says, "Don't listen to them." Jesus is constantly telling us, "Don't listen to them." Who's them? Just about everybody else. He's saying, "Listen to me. Focus on me. Don't listen to them." "God, I constantly make this decision." Are we going to listen to Jesus or are we going to listen to the world? Are we going to let the world guide us, or are we going to let Jesus guide us? Jesus says to the synagogue official, He says, "Don't listen to them. Stay with me. Let's go to your house." They go to the house. "She's dead. She's dead. She's dead." Everyone's crying and screaming and hysterical. Jesus is calm. He says to him, "She's not dead, she's asleep." He goes over and says, "Little girl, I say to you arise." The little girl gets up.
What area of your life do you need Jesus to do that in? You need Jesus to come over to you in your marriage and say, "Arise marriage." Do you need Jesus to come over to you in your career and say, "Arise career"? Do you need Jesus to come over to you in your personal finances and say, "Arise personal finances"? Do you need Jesus to come over to you in some aspect of your health and say, "Arise health"? We all need to be raised up by Jesus in some way today. And next week, we'll need to be raised up in some other way. That doesn't matter. How do you need God to raise you up today? And do you believe that he's capable of doing that, that he yearns to do that, that he wants to do that for you?
