20260706 HEALING DEFECTIVE LOVE THROUGH FAITH
06 July 2026, Monday, 14th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Hosea 2:16,17-18,21-22 |
I will betroth you to myself and you will come to know the name of the Lord
It is the Lord who speaks:
I am going to lure her
and lead her out into the wilderness
and speak to her heart.
There she will respond to me as she did when she was young,
as she did when she came out of the land of Egypt.
When that day comes – it is the Lord who speaks –
she will call me, ‘My husband’,
no longer will she call me, ‘My Baal.’
I will betroth you to myself for ever,
betroth you with integrity and justice,
with tenderness and love;
I will betroth you to myself with faithfulness,
and you will come to know the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 144(145):2-9 |
The Lord is kind and full of compassion.
I will bless you day after day
and praise your name for ever.
The Lord is great, highly to be praised,
his greatness cannot be measured.
The Lord is kind and full of compassion.
Age to age shall proclaim your works,
shall declare your mighty deeds,
shall speak of your splendour and glory,
tell the tale of your wonderful works.
The Lord is kind and full of compassion.
They will speak of your terrible deeds,
recount your greatness and might.
They will recall your abundant goodness;
age to age shall ring out your justice.
The Lord is kind and full of compassion.
The Lord is kind and full of compassion,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
How good is the Lord to all,
compassionate to all his creatures.
The Lord is kind and full of compassion.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.Jn6:63,68 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Matthew 9:18-26 |
'Your faith has restored you to health'
While Jesus was speaking, up came one of the officials, who bowed low in front of him and said, ‘My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and her life will be saved.’ Jesus rose and, with his disciples, followed him. Then from behind him came a woman, who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years, and she touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, ‘If I can only touch his cloak I shall be well again.’ Jesus turned round and saw her; and he said to her, ‘Courage, my daughter, your faith has restored you to health.’ And from that moment the woman was well again.
When Jesus reached the official’s house and saw the flute-players, with the crowd making a commotion he said, ‘Get out of here; the little girl is not dead, she is asleep.’ And they laughed at him. But when the people had been turned out he went inside and took the little girl by the hand; and she stood up. And the news spread all round the countryside.
HEALING DEFECTIVE LOVE THROUGH FAITH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Hosea 2:16,17-18,21-22; Mt 9:18-26]
The infidelity of Israel towards God is truly reflective of our own relationship with Him. The Scriptures pointedly describe this relationship as a betrayal in a marriage. God loves Israel as His own wife; so deep and intimate is the relationship between God and Israel. “It is the Lord who speaks: I am going to lure her and lead her out into the wilderness and speak to her heart. There she will respond to me as she did when she was young, as she did when she came out of the land of Egypt.”
Yet, Israel had always been unfaithful. Instead of being faithful to God, Israel turned to other gods. We can imagine how the heart of God was grieved by Israel’s infidelity. It came to the point where God wanted to punish Israel and give her up, but He said, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.” (Hos 11:8f)
The point of today’s First Reading is that God never gives up on us, no matter how much we have betrayed Him. God is patient and continues to wait for us to repent and return to Him. “When that day comes — it is the Lord who speaks — she will call me, ‘My husband’, no longer will she call me, ‘My Baal.’ I will betroth you to myself forever, betroth you with integrity and justice, with tenderness and love; I will betroth you to myself with faithfulness, and you will come to know the Lord.” God’s love is everlasting and faithful. When the Israelites were exiled and thought that God had abandoned them, lamenting, “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me,” God said through the prophet Isaiah, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.” (Isa 49:14-16)
Indeed, this has been the experience of the People of God throughout the ages. As the Responsorial Psalm says, “Age to age shall proclaim your works. They will recall your abundant goodness; age to age shall ring out your justice. The Lord is kind and full of compassion, slow to anger, abounding in love. How good is the Lord to all, compassionate to all his creatures!” God only seeks our repentance, and He is ever ready to receive us back. He wants to heal us, not to condemn us. He wants to give us His life and love. If we suffer because of our sins, it is His way of disciplining us so that we might turn back to Him.
We see the love and compassion of God in Christ Jesus in today’s Gospel. Jesus’ love and mercy have no boundaries. All He requires of us, as He did of Israel, is to have faith in Him. In the first incident, an official from the synagogue came to Jesus to ask Him to raise his daughter back to life. He “bowed low in front of him and said, ‘My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and her life will be saved.'” This was a very tall demand. He was not just asking for a healing, as in the case of Mark’s account, where the official told Jesus that his daughter was very ill and at the point of death (Mk 5:23). Without delay, “Jesus rose and, with his disciples, followed him.”
This synagogue official was truly desperate because it was a loss of reputation to turn to Jesus for help. He would have scandalised his own community and could even have been accused of betraying them. But in his desperation to bring his daughter back to life — a true demonstration of a father’s love — he turned to the Lord for help. When there is love, nothing is impossible. Only when love is lacking is hope also weak. When we love, we will risk everything for the person we love, because the life and love of a person outweigh all the material goods of this world.
It is also edifying that the official manifests a remarkable faith in Christ, believing not only that Jesus could heal, but that He could even bring the dead back to life. The official already had faith in Jesus, as seen by the fact that he worshipped the Lord by bowing low in front of Him; unlike in Mark’s Gospel, where he fell at His feet in desperation. This also explains why, unlike in Mark’s Gospel, the Lord did not have to say a word of encouragement to him, such as “Do not fear, only believe” (Mk 5:36), since he already had a firm faith in Him.
In contrast, the crowd in his house lacked faith. “When Jesus reached the official’s house and saw the flute-players, with the crowd making a commotion, he said, ‘Get out of here; the little girl is not dead, she is asleep.’ And they laughed at him.” Understandably, it is already hard to believe that someone can heal us of our illnesses, much less to believe that someone can raise us from the dead. “But when the people had been turned out, he went inside and took the little girl by the hand; and she stood up.” In raising the girl from the dead, Jesus demonstrates His authority over life and death.
Another example of faith that brings about healing is the woman with the menstrual disorder. She had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years. We can imagine the frustration and inconvenience she endured all those years with no one being able to help her. This was not just a health problem but a spiritual and social issue as well, as it made her ceremonially unclean. She was not allowed to go to the Temple and participate in Jewish religious life. Furthermore, she could not have a social life, as anyone she came into contact with would be made ritually unclean (Lev 15:19-33). Like the synagogue official, she was in despair, looking for a solution until Jesus came along.
Immediately, she knew that Jesus could heal her. Her faith was even stronger than that of the synagogue official; while the official needed Jesus to be physically present at his house to raise his daughter, this woman believed that mere contact with the cloak Jesus was wearing was enough for His healing power to reach her. So “from behind him came a woman, who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years, and she touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, ‘If I can only touch his cloak I shall be well again.'” From a Jewish point of view, even touching the tassel on Jesus’ cloak would have been unsettling, because it would have made Jesus ritually unclean.
Jesus, however, had a different perspective. This woman exhibited great faith in Him. Nevertheless, Jesus chose to expose her situation so that it would be clear that her healing was the result of God’s power, and not auto-suggestion as some might claim. Jesus made it clear that her faith in Him saved her; she was healed by the divine power that came out of Him. With great empathy and encouragement, “He said to her, ‘Courage, my daughter, your faith has restored you to health.’ And from that moment the woman was well again.” We can share in the joy of this woman because not only was her health restored, but she could also finally return to her social life.
Today, we take courage that in moments of despair, God will always be there for us — just as He was for the Israelites in exile, the official with the loss of his daughter, or the woman with a prolonged illness. Jesus understands our struggles and our needs. We are called to be courageous like the synagogue official and the woman suffering from the haemorrhage. We must not be afraid of looking silly or stupid by turning to God in prayer with our petitions, especially if we are high-ranking officials in society.
The truth is that many of us, especially if we hold positions in government or the corporate world, hide our faith for fear that people will think we are superstitious or laugh at us — just as the crowd laughed at Jesus and the official for believing the daughter could be raised. We must stand up for Jesus and declare our faith in Him, who is our healer and life-giver. Indeed, faith is what brings us into a relationship with Jesus. Faith, ultimately, is not simply an intellectual grasp of Jesus, but a personal surrender of our lives to Him. Only with faith can we be touched by the Lord. The crowd surrounding the woman and the official did not believe, and they received nothing but were thrown out!
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
