20180709
HUMBLE FAITH AS THE PRE-REQUISITE TO RECEIVING
HEALING
09 JULY, 2018, Monday, 14th Week,
Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Hosea 2:16,17-18,21-22 ©
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I will betroth you to myself and you will come to know the name
of the Lord
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It is the Lord who speaks:
I am going to lure her
and lead her out into the wilderness
and speak to her heart.
I am going to give her back her vineyards,
and make the Valley of Achor a gateway of hope.
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.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 144(145):2-9 ©
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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.
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Jn6:63,68
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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cf.2Tim1:10
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 9:18-26 ©
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'Your faith has restored you to health'
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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.
HUMBLE FAITH AS THE PRE-REQUISITE TO RECEIVING HEALING
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Hosea 2:16, 17-18, 21-22; Mt 9:18-26 ]
The first
reading from Prophet Hosea speaks of the tender and merciful love of God who
comes to forgive and heal us. The God whom we believe in is not a God who enjoys
punishing us or seeing us suffer. On the contrary, it hurts Him more to
see us in our misery because of our sins. That is why the Lord told Hosea
to tell the people, “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.” God
loves His people and is always faithful to them even when they are unfaithful
to Him.
The exile of
the Israelites to Babylon must not be seen as a punishment of God but the means
by which a new exodus could begin. The first exodus from Egypt, the land of slavery, to
the Promised Land did not last long because of the complacency of the people,
leading them to sin, idolatry, injustice, sexual immorality and greed. So
God led the people into exile in Babylon so that the people could find time to
rethink their way of life. Indeed, often a comfortable and affluent life
leads us to take things for granted. We become demanding, unappreciative,
calculative and self-centered.
It is only
when we enter into the desert of failure, emptiness and desperation that we
begin to realize that we are not so powerful and self-sufficient after all. Indeed, only in our
loneliness and misery can we come to realize who our true God is and who is the
one whom we can rely on. This is what the Lord said, “When that day comes
– it is the Lord who speaks -she will call me, “My husband”, no longer will she
call me, ‘My Baal.’” Indeed, it is not Baal or the gods of fertility, of
money, power and status that will see us through in life. Only God who is
our love will be able to sustain us, give meaning and purpose in life.
This God who
is faithful in love will once again accept us back even if we were adulterous
before.
God forgave His people who committed adultery against Him. How many of us
can forgive and accept our spouse who has been unfaithful to us in
marriage? How many of us can continue with our relationship with someone
who has betrayed us? Most of the time, we would not be able to forgive
them. For many, that would be the end of the relationship. But this
is not so for God. God is willing to forgive our past, renew His
covenantal love for us the moment we repent and turn back to Him. This is
what He said through the prophet, “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.”
This healing,
forgiving and long-suffering love is expressed once again in the person of
Jesus, who was a man of deep sensitivity. We read that “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.” He did not get angry or annoyed that the man came and interrupted
Him when He was speaking. Instead, when He heard that his daughter had
died, Jesus immediately stopped what He was doing and followed the official to
his house. Jesus was extremely sensitive to the needs and the
sufferings of people. He was not so absorbed in doing what He was doing
but He was conscious of something more important that demanded His immediate
attention because the father must have been distraught with the death of his
daughter. Jesus did not delay in attending to the official’s bereavement.
The
compassion of our Lord is also seen in the healing of the woman with
haemorrhage. Even in His preoccupation with the urgency of attending to the
official’s daughter, Jesus was also sensitive to the suffering of this woman. “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 was sensitive to
the touch of the woman. He was able to feel power coming out from
Him. Even whilst attending to another problem, He did not ignore others
who were equally desperate for His help.
But the
gospel clearly underscores that the outreach of Jesus, whether to raise the
daughter of the official or the woman with haemorrhage, were never done to show
forth His power or to sensationalize, but only to help. For this reason, when
He arrived at the house and there were many onlookers who came out of curiosity
and some out of sympathy, Jesus turned the people out. He was not
performing a spectacular stunt so that people would be cowed into believing in
Him. He was only interested in restoring the daughter to the father, who
He knew was suffering much from the loss.
In the same
way too, when Jesus turned round and saw the woman who touched Him, He said to
her, “’Courage, my daughter, your faith has restored you to health.’ And from that moment
the women was well again.” Jesus singled out the woman not to expose her
condition or to reprimand her for breaking the law by touching Him when she was
menstruating. He and all those whom she came into contact with
would have been made unclean by her. But Jesus wanted her to be freed not
just from her physical illness but from this guilt and fear as well.
Hence, Jesus felt the need to affirm her that her bleeding had stopped and that
she had not broken the law.
What, then,
does it take for us to receive His mercy? We need the faith of the
Official and that of the woman suffering from haemorrhage. It was the faith of the
official who believed in Jesus and saw Him as a true man of God. It was
also the faith of the woman who had spent all her money on doctors who could
not treat her illness. Because of their faith in Him, the Lord, on
account of the official, raised his daughter back to life; and cured the woman
of her bleeding.
If we want
healing and forgiveness, we must come to the Lord with expectant faith like
them.
Without expectant faith and trust in His power to heal and His mercy to forgive
us, we cannot receive His love and mercy. This is the faith and expectation
of the psalmist when he prayed, “Age to age shall proclaim your works, shall
declare your mighty deeds, shall speak of your splendor and glory, tell the
tale of your wonderful works. 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,
slow to anger, abounding in love. How good is the Lord to all, compassionate to
all his creatures.”
Secondly, we
need the humility of the official and the woman who turned to Jesus.
The official humbled himself to approach the Lord for assistance. He was
not afraid of what others might think of him associating with Jesus and worse
still, believing in Him. So too the woman was humble enough to admit that
she touched the fringe of the Lord’s cloak. She was ready to admit her
fault and her sin. She did not defend herself nor was she too proud to
admit her weakness. Indeed, when we come to the Lord, we too must come in
humility for healing. No matter who we are, we all must recognize our
nothingness before God. We can be rich, influential, famous and powerful,
but before God, before death and illness, we are nothing. So, if we want
the Lord to heal us, we must, like the Israelites in their suffering, humble
ourselves to recognize who the real Lord and God is. We too must confess
our sins and surrender our pride if we seek the Lord’s healing grace and mercy.
Finally,
there is a warning to those without faith and those who are proud and
cynical. They will be turned out, as Jesus did to those cynics in the
house. “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.”
If we want to remain proud, arrogant and skeptical of Jesus, then we will not
be able to receive anything from Him. Indeed, without faith in Him, the
Lord would not perform miracles, neither for His countrymen when He went back
to Nazareth (cf Mt 13:58), or for Herod who wanted Him to put on a show for
Him. (cf Lk 23:8f) But if we are open and receptive then we will see
the miracles He will work in our lives. And we too will be like the
people who spread the news “all round the countryside.”
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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