Faith and Healing, or exclusion
(Mk 5:21-43)
In Rome, at the time of Mk, the situation of confusion generated by the civil war seemed likely to become lethal for the survival of the persecuted young communities, which some mocked (v.40).
The twelve years of life and bleeding of the two women recall: in Semitic culture, the loss of blood indicated impurity [the beginning of death] and consequent social exclusion.
Blood and death were here and there factors of marginalisation even in the small fraternities, which in that period marked by a still Judaizing thought and customs prevented any participation, even in common appointments.
Under the obsessive diseducation of spiritual leaders, particularly on the sense of sin and unworthiness - in addition, the religious terror of demons - everything seemed to sow panic.
Fears absorbed most of the emotional resources. This made people's situation worse (v.26).
How to overcome the heap of obstacles, which seemed to have no way out? One had to do the exact opposite of what the religious authorities were inculcating!
Incidentally, the women, completely subjugated, did not in conscience agree with the leaders at all.
They even found in the type of male crowd attached to Christ an impediment to personal contact with the Lord....
So they knew they would have to invent something. And they were trying it on the sly.
The 'woman' moves by catching the Master 'from behind' (v.27) - indeed, by stealth! But hers is by no means a sacrilege.
Jesus notices the touch of the least, not just the usual misogynistic throng around.
So, the followers who already imagined they had seized him, fearful of his sensitivity to the least and the non-persons - they treat him as an imbecile and unwise (v.31).
The disciples [leaders and males] always stand by the Son of God, but they do not agree with Him at all. They just want to sequester Him for them.
Dear Rabbi, how dare you have a different reaction from what we tell you? And how does it occur to you to pay attention to those who should only be opposed and condemned - for the indecent initiative they have set themselves? Do you want to ruin us? There's us, that's enough; to others, death and hell; anticipated if possible.
For Jesus, on the other hand, the quality of life and of our expectations in this world is important: it is not enough to think about the afterlife [of the kind: Here sketches, and in the end you will deserve...].
Heaven alone does not count.
Therefore, the transgression of the (considered) defiled - who even follow their conscience [at that time a disgrace] - is grasped by the Lord as an expression of living Faith (v.34)!
"Daughter": Christ welcomes the woman into his Church, and in her he values all those whom the habitués keep at a safe distance.
Nor does He demand that she go to the Temple to offer the sacrifice prescribed by the Law to the priests!
He only says: "Your Faith has saved you. Go in Peace".
That is: go forth to the joy of a full life, without the judgement of inadequacy [and the usual deceitful tares] on your back.
Indeed, even the leader of ancient devotion cannot but beget "sons" [i.e., a whole spiritual people] already dead at the start (v.35).
But from the moment he turns to the authentic Master, he begins to make the transition from elementary piety to Faith (v.36).
In such an intimate spousal relationship, without the fear of punishment, the premature end regenerates life, youth, happiness.
The lesson is not only for the traditional synagogue, but also for the leaders of the nascent Church: the proud Peter, James and John (v.37).
Precisely because they are authoritarian, hasty and stubborn - all the other believers in the community are well advised to keep their distance from an environment that cries out in despair, because it still imagines physical death as an impassable fence (v.38).
And here arises a new religious transgression: the book of Leviticus forbade touching a corpse (v.41).
With such an incredible gesture, Christ reiterates: he who observes the law that does not humanise produces death himself and goes to his death.
The only non-negotiable value is the concrete good of the real person. God does not look at merits [supposedly, from invented observances] but needs.
And personal Faith is the divine Gold that realises the inner vision.
Indestructible quality of Relationship: such Action-compassion transcends death that spoils everything.
Exactly, attracting and fulfilling what the act itself believes (vv.23.28.34.36.39).
"Young girl, I say to you: get up!" (v.41).
St Jerome comments: "Maiden, arise for me: not by your merit, but by my grace. Arise therefore for me: the fact that you were healed did not depend on your virtues' [Homilies on the Gospel of Mark, 3].
In the Gospels the verbs Live, Save and Die are ambivalent and describe both physical health and life and spiritual salvation, of the heart (v.34).
The narration of today's Word helps us to overcome the mechanistic view of life: in the Mystery of the founding Eros that animates and renews the wave of life, there is the way to beat problems.
In Christ, our total redemption is a divine response to a trust that is also a little primitive - perhaps incipient - but passionate, that leads to regeneration.
In the Hebrew Bible, the term 'immortality' does not exist.
Israel's slowness in believing in life without end is illuminating: it makes one realise that before believing in the future world, one must value and love existence in this world.
And to have passion for it in the same way as the Father.
Contact with the Son, his words, and the nods themselves, convey a power of healing and rebirth that renews both flesh and spirit; both light and shadow.
Not even death stands as a final and conclusive barrier.
Even today, the divine cure, its memory and consoling power are brought to life in the signs of the Church.
But let us not limit ourselves to being spectators crowding around, without true contact with the Risen One.
Let us open our ears and realise that we are not called to follow in the footsteps of bulky, extraneous presences of others.
Let us speak to Him personally, and ask in everything that He intervene in our infirmities, or momentary lapses.
And there arises the silence of a space that is ours, unrepeatable, fragrant, secret; that blossoms from a genuine Syntony.
Then He will transform us, communicate Himself to us (v.43), make us like Him and able to withstand challenges.
Finally able to untie knots of death and help the suspensions of others.
To internalise and live the message:
What is the call of Jesus' actions for you, your family and community?
