23rd Sunday after Pentecost

This Sunday is the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost. We're getting close to the end of the Liturgical year, and our Gospel gives us a hint to what is to come. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, we hear of the ruler whose daughter has died, and of the woman with the blood issue and hoping to even touch His garment.

GOSPEL (Matt. IX. 18-26.) At that time, As Jesus was speaking to the multitudes, behold, a certain ruler came up, and adored him, saying: "Lord , my daughter is even now dead: but come, lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live". And Jesus, rising up, followed him, with his disciples. And behold, a woman, who was troubled with an 'issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment. For she said within herself: "If I shall touch only his garment, I shall be healed." But Jesus turning and seeing her, said: "Be of good heart, daughter: thy faith hath made thee whole." And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus was come into the house of the ruler, and saw the minstrels and the multitude making a tumult, He said: "Give place: for the girl is not dead, but sleepeth." And they laughed him to scorn. And when the multitude was put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand. And the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that country.

Notice that this woman was cured by just touching the garment. In 'The City of God', by the Venerable Mary of Agreda, our Blessed Mother tells this Mary that she made the garment for Jesus without seams, and that it grew with Him His entire life. So, when this woman drained some power from it, of course Jesus felt it. It was part of Him.


INSTRUCTIONS for US:

I. Filial was the faith, unbounded the confidence, profound the humility of this woman, and therefore, she received health also. Learn from this, how pleasing to the Lord is Faith, confidence and humility; let your prayer always be penetrated by these three virtues, and you will receive whatever you ask.

II. The devout Louis de Ponte compares the conduct of this woman to our conduct at Holy Communion, and says: 'Christ wished to remain with us in the most holy Eucharist, clothed with the garment of the sacramental species of bread, that he who receives His sacred Flesh and Blood, may be freed from evil concupiscence. If you wish to obtain the health of your soul, as did this woman the health of the body, imitate her. Receive the Flesh and Blood of Jesus with the most profound humility, with the firmest confidence in His power and goodness, and like this woman you too will be made whole.'

III. Jesus called three dead persons to life, the twelve year old daughter of Jairus, ruler of the synagogue, of whom there is mention made in this gospel, the young man at Naim, (Luke VII. 14.) and Lazarus. (John. XI- 43.) By these three dead persons three classes of sinners may be understood: the maiden signifies those who sin in their youth through weakness and frailty, but touched by the grace of God, perceive their fall and easily rise again through penance; by the young man at Naim those are to be understood who sin repeatedly and in public, these require greater grace, more labor and severer penance; by Lazarus, the public and obdurate habitual sinners are to be understood who can be raised to spiritual life only by extraordinary graces and severe public penance.

IV. Christ did not raise the maiden, until the minstrels and noisy multitude were removed, by which He wished to teach us that the conversion of a soul cannot be accomplished in the midst of the noise and turmoil of temporal cares, idle pleasures and associations.

St. Jerome tells us, in the homily selected for the day, that the hemorrhoissa, healed by our Lord, 'is a type of the Gentile world; whilst the Jewish people is represented by the daughter of the ruler of the Synagogue. This latter is not to be restored to life until the former has been cured; and this is precisely the mystery we are so continually commemorating during these closing weeks of the liturgical year, viz., the fullness of the Gentiles recognizing and welcoming the divine Physician, and the blindness of Israel at last giving way to the light.'

Let us ask our Lord to enlighten us to recognize the Truth and act accordingly. Learn the Faith that comes to us from the Apostles, study it, because any deviance from it is WRONG!, no matter who tells us otherwise.

Lord, have mercy.