Our Comparability to the Woman with Hemorrhages (Mark 5)
We know what suffering is! In a world nearly completely consumed by sin, it would be inconceivable to not experience suffering! We all need to forgive someone, and ourselves just as much. It would be understated to say we bear the wounds of normal activity in the world because it is not a scarce occurrence. Often, it can become all we think about, but do we stop and think about the joy it is to become like Jesus. Do we consider what God desires for us? Do we join our sufferings to Jesus? We have a lot in common with the woman with hemorrhages: what happened before she met Jesus, sometimes how she met Jesus, her conversation with Him, and even what God does for her.
"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" Mark 5: 25-26
Firstly, do we turn to pleasure, anger, avarice, competition, seeking out something to inflate our ego, or idleness? These doctors propose solutions without actually knowing exactly what the problem is nor if the solution is right for her even if it is the right condition and cure. All the while being further wounded. Do we seek to solve our problems by worldly pursuits? Often they make them worse, like pharmaceuticals which just help with symptoms. There are often many potential unwanted side effects which are hardly considered just as long as the drug accomplishes what we want. So also it is with sin. Sin has caused each of us harm, but what we do about it is the ultimate question. If we turn toward any of the seven deadly sins (pride, anger, avarice, gluttony, sloth, envy, and/or lust), we will likely find ourselves attached to something we would rather not be and thereby not just hurting but now with shame. Only getting 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; she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease." Verses 27-29
Second, we come crawling to God after we have sinned, because we have found He has the power to heal. This is the best step we have made so far. G.K. Chesterton has said we are all in the same boat and we are all seasick. One may also cite the splinter in our eye that we need to be removed. Our need has never been so desperate. She was also suffering from the despair of poverty. She had nowhere else to go no money left to spend. In our desperation, we no longer have the courage to ask much of the infinite one. WE NEED A SAVIOUR! Christ became incarnate because of this our desperation. God becoming flesh is not a trivial event. On the contrary, it doesn't make sense unless He really loves us and we really need Him to do that! So we come to Him, maybe even as she does have faith that something may happen, but too ashamed to ask. We are moved to encounter him without prayer hopefully believing in his power to heal however not all of us do at first. Many approach the sacrament insisting that they will be healed or it’s the sacrament's fault. If they have a lack of consolation in their set of beliefs it is not that they aren’t right but it is the system itself. Had the woman not known that Jesus could save her any better than the doctors she may not have been healed.
"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.” Verse 30-34
Third, how do we thank God? This was among her most desperate moments but she was not distracted by the urgency, instead, she knew of God’s care for her believing he would understand. It is almost identical to the conversation after the fruit was consumed in the garden of Eden but this is slightly different. In a way, we can see that she treated God as a means to an end. This is what she needed and what we all need! God wants us to come to Him, YES! However, He doesn't let us and indeed not her be healed without being given an opportunity to love Him in return. What do we have that God has not given us? We have been consoled, all we need is God. How can we possibly be sufficiently grateful? He gives her the opportunity to witness to her faith and she accepts his invitation. Further, he also helped her not use him as a means to an end. She touched His cloak to gain but did not ask she knew she had breached charity and like the Garden (and indeed each of us), she was sought out and invited to accept mercy in and even through humility.
Concluding, let us go before God with our problems, let us do not only because we need Him but because we want Him. Let us accept the gift, He freely gives. Christ came to save those who need it. Let us ask big things of Him because such is our need for Him. We should remember that God is not ours to control yet He loves us. Let us witness to what He does for us before others. Let us display our gratitude to God by continually offering ourselves and all our resources: our time, abilities, and wealth but of all loving witness. Because at the end of all things we shall be judged on how much we have loved.
