Benny’s doctor told him that he had a serious liver problem. The cause? His heavy consumption of alcohol was overtaxing his liver to the point that it was beginning to shut down. He prescribed medicine for the problem. Six months later, the test results showed no improvement in Benny’s condition. He took the medicine but continued consuming alcohol. Medicine couldn’t solve the problem if the root cause was not eliminated.
Our Church offers the most powerful medicine on earth every day and yet we don’t see many results. We wonder why.
Today’s gospel reading gives us a sense of how powerful the Eucharist is (Mark 5:21-43).
“There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.’ Immediately her flow of blood dried up.”
Medical science and money did all they could for this poor woman, and yet she continued to get worse. Having faith in the power of Jesus, she decided to sneak up behind him and touch his coat. Her strategy worked! The blood dried up immediately and her condition was healed. Where did this Jesus come from who had such power that flowed even out of his clothes?
“Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out of him, turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who has touched my clothes?’ But his disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and you ask, Who touched me?’”
How did Jesus know that someone touched his coat? He felt the divine power inside him leave his body. Something happened that did not happen when others bumped into him. The woman’s faith “drew” the power of Jesus by way of his coat. Her faith was like an open vessel ready to be filled with precious wine. And the “precious wine” was the power of the Holy Spirit that radiated out of Jesus’ body.
“The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has saved you. God in peace and be cured of your affliction.’”
We wonder why Jesus called the woman out of her anonymity. Was that necessary to complete her healing? Or did Jesus want to teach the crowd the importance of needing faith to be saved? Salvation and healing are not “automatics.” Rather than chiding the woman for touching him without permission he talked to her as a loving father and addressed her as “daughter.” Not only was she healed; at that moment she received a new identity, as God’s own daughter. She was saved as well!
Back to Benny. Each time we receive communion at Mass, we go beyond touching Jesus’ coat or even touching his hand, to having him come inside our bodies and touch us in an intimate way as food touches us when we eat it. If touching Jesus’ coat worked a miracle of healing with the afflicted woman, how come we don’t see more miracles within us when we receive the Body and Blood of the risen Lord? Is it because we are not letting go of the causes of our spiritual diseases? Are we trying to mix alcohol and liver medicine?
At the start of each Mass, we take a time to repent of our sin. Sometimes this happens so fast that we don’t even pay attention when the priest says, “Let us call to mind our sins.” Sin and Jesus don’t mix. Also do we have the open glass of faith to receive Jesus, or are we like the crowds that pressed in upon Jesus that day and got no benefit from it?
In the Eucharist we are touched by the risen Body of Jesus. Is it having a miraculous effect in our lives? If not, why not?
