Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- A New Faith

Friends, the centerpiece of our Gospel today is the story of the hemorrhaging woman.
To get at the power of the Gospel, we have to reacquaint ourselves with the Jewish attitudes regarding the clean and
the unclean.
In the book of Leviticus, we find carefully laid out prescriptions dealing with animals, plants, foods, and situations that are unclean.
These prescriptions were meant to identify the Jewish people as a people.
But they had a rather severe downside, since they placed certain people in extremely difficult situations.

Having a flow of blood for twelve years meant that for that entire period
the woman in our Gospel was a virtual pariah.
Anyone with whom she came in contact would be considered unclean.
She couldn’t participate in the ordinary life of her society.

She touches Jesus and should have rendered him unclean.
But so great is her faith, that her touch, instead, renders her clean.
Jesus effectively restores her to full participation in her community.

The most important outcome is this:
Jesus implicitly puts an end to the ritual code of Leviticus.
The identity of the new Israel, the Church,
would not be through ritual behaviors but through imitation of him.

+++While Jesus was speaking,
an official came forward,
knelt down before him, and said,
“My daughter has just died.
But come, lay your hand on her, and
she will live.”
Jesus rose and followed him, and so
did his disciples.
A woman suffering hemorrhages for
twelve years came up behind him
and touched the tassel on his cloak.
She said to herself, “If only I can
touch his cloak, I shall be cured.”
Jesus turned around and saw her, and said,
“Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.”
And from that hour the woman was cured.
When Jesus arrived at the official’s house
and saw the flute players and the
crowd who were making a commotion,
he said, “Go away! The girl is not
dead but sleeping.”
And they ridiculed him.
When the crowd was put out, he came
and took her by the hand,
and the little girl arose.
And news of this spread
throughout all that land.+++

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